Obscure
by Charliebunny07
Summary: Mulder and Scully investigate the disappearances of Leafmore's high school students, but discover something more sinister. Complete.
1. Teaser

_**Author's note; **__Alrighty then, this is my first fanfic trying to make an actual x-file, meaning paranormal story, and Mulder/Scully friendship, you know, the way they act in the show. _

_I am basing it on the game OBSCURE, which is a really great game. _

_I would appreciate creative criticism only, thank you. Anyway…on with the show : ) _

_**Warning; **__this story does contain violence, but nothing is graphically explained and has it's heavy moments._

_**Disclaimer**__; _**for all chapters that follow**_; Mulder and Scully belong to that lucky man Chris Carter, and all the Obscure characters and storyline belong to; _

Developer: Hydravision

Publisher: Europe - Microids

Publisher: North America - Dreamcatcher Interactive

_**Teaser**_

It was Friday evening and Kenny Matthews was in the gym of his high school, Leafmore High. He was practicing his jump shots and free throws; just wasting time and energy.

Kenny Matthews was an average high school student. This year was his senior year and he was enjoying everyday of it. He did everything any senior or teenager should be doing, furthermore, some things he shouldn't.

His parents had left for the weekend and he decided that since he had no one to answer to; he would just stay out and do what he wanted.

Kenny missed a shot and swore. He wasn't as focused as he usually was tonight, just because earlier he had fought with his younger sister, Shannon. She was only a year younger, and they were very close. They had fought about him coming home early that night; she didn't want to be alone, but he just wanted to use the freedom he rarely had when their parents were around.

He was sorry that he had upset her and he didn't like to fight with her, only because she was friends with his girlfriend, Ashley Thompson.

They talked a lot, and sometimes Shannon would, unintentionally, get in him trouble with Ashley. They being friends worked against him.

Kenny this time made a basket. He whooped, and did a little dance, then stopped and looked around; just to make sure he was alone. The last thing he needed was one of his friends seeing him, especially Josh. He was always carrying a camcorder around, filming things he shouldn't be. Kenny liked the guy and would hate to have to kill him for the video.

Kenny felt that he was alone and continued with his free throws. He was the captain of his basketball team and he felt that he needed to be the best so that his teammates could count on him to be a good leader.

He was completely focused on his game, but was interrupted when his cell phone ring. He groaned. He knew who it would be, not that he really minded. He ran back to his bag and took out his cell phone.

"Hey, Ash, what's going on?" he said brightly.

"What do you mean _'what's going on', _Kenny, you said that we were going out tonight and that you would pick me up at seven, it is now seven-twenty," Ashley demanded harshly, "Please don't tell me your playing basketball again,"

Kenny faltered. He was usually smooth with her, but he didn't know what to say tonight. He knew that he couldn't lie, but he didn't want to admit that he was playing, or practicing this time.

He internally berated himself, for forgetting to ask Shannon to cover him.

"Don't worry, I was just leaving," he said defeated.

"Uh-huh," she said skeptically.

"_I was, _I'll be there in twenty minutes babe," he promised.

"All right, you better be," she said and hung up.

Kenny decided that he better make good on his promise. An angry Ashley was terrible thing to face.

He ran back to the locker room. He set his bag down to look for a change of clothes in his locker and decided to shower before heading over to her house.

Kenny showered quickly and dressed. He went back to his locker to get his school things and head out. He noticed his bag was missing. He knew he had set his backpack down on the bench. He started to look through his locker and the area around him. He was confused and a bit freaked out.

He heard something stir on the far side of the locker room. He was startled, but he figured it was probably just one of his friends.

"If you think you can scare me, you got another thing coming," Kenny said, his voice a bit unsure.

He waited for a reply, but got nothing. He instead heard the door open and someone exit.

Kenny became angry. _Why would someone want to take his stuff?_

He decided to follow. He saw the gym doors closed. They had exited the gym. _They move pretty fast_, Kenny thought and he rushed after them, thankful that his training for basketball had given him great stamina.

Kenny exited the gym and ended up in the quad area. He listened hard, and heard the footsteps moving away from him towards the left.

Kenny followed the person to the south side of the school. He saw a door that was usually kept locked, was now opened. He walked through and was slightly becoming a bit unnerved. No one was ever allowed in this part of the school, except the principal.

He heard the footsteps continue forward. Kenny was afraid, but when remembered that he was trying to get back his backpack, it only renewed his anger.

He moved farther into the area and was surprised to see a huge house. He never knew that this was what was being hidden, but why? Kenny saw the person move to the right side of the house. Kenny followed and saw the person hurriedly walk down into an opening that seemed to lead to a cellar.

"What is up with you," he complained, "Just give me back my stuff!" he called.

He got no response. Frustrated at being ignored, he continued after the person.

Kenny ended up in a small storage room. In the middle of the room's floor was a ladder that seemed to lead under the house. He saw the person's light moving down, but also coming from the opening was an unknown growling.

Kenny felt hesitant and hated knowing that that was where he needed to go if he wanted his stuff back. Honestly, he wanted to forget about his stuff and head to Ashley's, but he realized that he _needed _to get it back, if not for the principle of it. He didn't let _anyone_ mess with him and he wasn't about to let this jerk get away with that.

Kenny looked around the room. He needed a weapon to protect himself from the person, in case they wanted to fight, and…for what ever was growling down there.

Kenny saw on the table an old box. It was slightly open and in it contained an ancient looking pistol. It was dusty, and he really doubted that it worked.

He picked it up and saw that it was in really good condition, and loaded. Next to it was also a flashlight.

Kenny felt even more unease. It was as if someone had set this up, but why and was the person that he was following in on it. Well, Kenny figured it didn't matter; no one messed with him and got away with it.

He grabbed the gun and the flashlight. He gathered up as much courage as he had left and headed down the ladder.

Kenny was now underground. He looked down a long hallway that was lit with dim red lights, but even in the semi-darkness, he noticed that the hallway seemed weird.

His eyes adjusted better to the lighting and he walked a little ways further down the hall and saw that growing out of the walls were very thick roots. They seemed to have bust through the concrete. He wondered what was going on with the trees for that to be happening.

Kenny walked over to a root and examined it. It didn't look normal and he was sure his eyes were playing tricks on him because he was sure that the root was _breathing_, or at least oddly looked like it had a heartbeat.

"Weird," he said and decided not to touch it.

Not being able to make sense of it, he shrugged it off and continued onward.

As he moved farther down the hall, he needed to use his flashlight. A strange darkness was enveloping him.

He came across an area of broken wall and had to be careful as he walked by it, but when he focused his light on the ground, something that was as big as a cat, but not a cat, ran by. He only caught a glimpse of it, but was sure that it looked nothing like any animal he had ever seen in his life.

"What the hell," he said, out of shock and curiosity.

He cautiously continued forward, in case anymore of those things wanted to pop out. Finally, he reached the end of the hall, but as he looked at the door, he noticed that it was covered in a strange dark mist. He reached out to touch it and he felt a slight pull and his skin burn as if he had stepped in front of a heater. He moved back from it quickly. The warmth wasn't peaceful. He felt completely frightened of it.

Kenny deliberated on what he should do. He wanted his stuff back and the person who had it could have only come this way. Therefore, there had to be a way to get passed this thing.

Kenny stared at it and then remembered the flashlight. He felt that it was a long shot, but it was his only option. He knew shooting at it wouldn't work. The darkness was a mist; solid things had a tendency to go through non-solid things.

He aimed his flashlight and turned it on. Instantly it began to shriek and recoil. He felt his blood run cold; the shriek was nothing like he had ever heard before.

Finally, the mist seemed to have disappeared. He tentatively touched the door without trouble. Kenny was more frightened, but was now curious of what was going on in his _normal_ high school.

Kenny walked through the door and ended up in a storage room, but it held nothing he had ever seen the school use. It was filled with huge cages and little ones. He knew that his school didn't house any animals except maybe frogs or hamsters, but nothing that was bigger then a human being. And these cages were humungous.

He explored the room a bit, but couldn't make much sense of what he was seeing.

Kenny still wanted his stuff back, but now he wanted to know what was going on.

He saw a big door in the middle of the room and another one across from the door he entered. He decided to try the one in the middle. It was a big steel door with a barred opening. He tried to open it, but it was locked. There was an ominous growling coming from inside. He backed away from it quickly, afraid that whatever was in there was going to go after him.

Kenny then headed for the door that was across from the door he came from and thought, by process of elimination, it had to be unlocked. The person he was chasing had to have come through here and unlock one of the doors to get out.

The door was unlocked and Kenny opened it and entered a smaller room. It held only two doors and a large cabinet. It also had a big hole to the left. Kenny decided to stay away from the hole.

He tried to open the door to the left, but it was locked. He tried the right and it opened. He stepped in and saw that the room he entered was like a jail cell, but it was practically destroyed. The walls were cracked and the bed overturned. Kenny noticed among the ruins a teenage boy who was huddling in the far corner, seemingly trying to hide.

Kenny felt wary of him, so he approached him carefully.

"No, no, no, have pity please, no more injections, it burns, don't…I don't want to go back." said the boy now cowering against the wall.

"I don't…what are you talking about?" Kenny said, but looked around the cell, "What is this place?" he asked the boy.

The teen boy was still muttering his protests, unaware that Kenny was there.

"Hey," Kenny said touching his shoulder.

Immediately the boy jumped and recoiled, if possible, farther away from Kenny. The boy looked at Kenny fearful.

Kenny saw that it was a boy who went to his school. A sophomore named Dan; except he didn't look the way Kenny remembered him.

Dan was so thin now and sickly looking. Dan had been on the football team before he disappeared. He was big and muscular, or at least used to be. However, Dan had only been missing three weeks! Dan looked like he had been starved for months!

_Had he been here the whole time, but why_? Kenny wondered.

"Hey, don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you," Kenny said soothingly.

Dan stared at Kenny, as if trying to figure out who he was.

Finally, Dan seemed to relax a bit. "Oh, you fell for it too," he said as if it was a normal observation of the weather.

"Fell for what?" Kenny asked confused.

Dan shook his head, "You don't get it, we need to get you out of here, quick," Dan said seriously, after he had found his mind, but then grasped Kenny's arm, "Don't abandon me, what ever you do, he's nuts, " he begged fearful.

"I won't I promise," Kenny said alarmed and wondering how _he_ was, "All right, let's go,"

Dan led the way out of the cell. They entered back into the small room with the huge hole.

"He always hides a gun in here," Dan said heading for the cabinet in the room.

Kenny looked at him still wondering who _'he' _was.

Dan opened the cabinet and pulled out a gun. Dan checked it and was satisfied that it was loaded.

Kenny just watched him surprised.

Kenny and Dan headed back into the room with the huge cages. Kenny knew that he wasn't going to find out who took his bag, but at the moment with what he was seeing, he didn't care. All he wanted to do was get out of this basement and head over to Ashley's.

As he and Dan walked passed the steel door that was locked, he heard the menacing growl again. It was louder and seemed closer to the door. That was all the incentive that he needed to get out quickly. He sped up, dragging Dan with him. As they were getting around a few of the boxes to the main door, Kenny heard as the door was ripped open. He turned and saw something that would never leave his mind for the rest of his life. It was some kind of monster. Monster in every sense of the word.

It nearly looked like a human, but with its scull showing, and droopy skin all over. It had no eyes and its mouth was mostly razor sharp looking teeth and was obviously its weapon of choice. Kenny also saw that it was surrounded by the mist he encountered earlier at the door.

Dan and he stood still for a moment, mesmerized by it. Then Kenny's mind clicked back on, _'run or be killed by it'_ it screamed. Luckily, his legs reacted before he could tell them to move. He tried to pull Dan with him, but Dan resisted him.

"Nooooooo," he screamed at the monster and started firing his gun.

The bullets didn't seem to do much. Kenny couldn't figure why, but felt that it had something to do with the black mist.

"Hey, Dan!" Kenny called.

Dan turned to look at him. Kenny tossed his flashlight at him.

"Aim it at the thing," Kenny instructed.

Dan did and the monster slightly recoiled, but the light wasn't strong enough.

Kenny rushed towards the exiting door, opened it and ran into the other room.

Dan followed him, but wasn't fast enough. The monster caught him.

Kenny wanted to run back and try to help Dan, but the monster had picked up Dan and ripped out his heart and tore off his head.

Kenny stopped for only a moment to see this happen, but his mind reminded him to keep moving, or else he would meet the same fate.

Kenny took off running down the hall with the thick roots, which seemed to have grown more within the last twenty minutes. He dodged the roots and the little things that he had mistaken for what looked like a cat. Now he saw what they really were, pieces of flesh with legs and teeth. He wanted out of the hall as quickly as possible, not that he hadn't before. He put on an extra burst of speed.

Kenny made it to the ladder and started to climb, relief filling him as he climbed higher and higher. He looked up into a familiar face and was grateful, thinking this person was going to help him; was going to save him, until the door to the ladder closed and he was left in complete darkness with all his nightmares come true, screaming to no one.

_**Second author's note; J**__ust to let you know I am writing this while my bf plays the game, so it will take sometime to finish, especially adding Mulder and Scully and keeping the story consistent, everyone knows how most games make no sense, well, my job is to make it make as much sense as possible and keep you interested, I don't know if I do a good job with that, so I would appreciate it if no one pointed out that it makes no sense, not my fault the way games are written. I really have to fill in a lot of blanks with this game._


	2. Chapter one

**Chapter one **

Fox Mulder sat at his desk in his office not really doing much. No X-files were coming in, or at least ones Skinner and Scully deemed important. A few had caught _his_ attention, but without authorization from Skinner, he had to let them go. Therefore, it was nearly a month since he and Scully had been out in the field.

It was still early this morning. Scully had an autopsy to do down at Quantico, and then after that she had a meeting with Skinner. Mulder didn't know what it was about, but he knew she would fill him in when she came into the office.

Mulder knew that he had a lot of paperwork he should really finish, but he _really_ didn't want to do it. On the other hand, he also knew that it wasn't fair to leave it all to Scully. Honestly, he knew she would end up doing it anyway.

He spent most of his morning looking over old case files and fixing up his desk. Doing anything to get out of doing actual paperwork.

At eleven, Dana Scully finally entered the office. She looked tired, but she also looked like she held good news.

"Hey, Scully, you get back from the meeting with Skinner?" He asked immediately.

She glared at him slightly, "Gee, thanks Mulder my day was wonderful, thanks for asking," she said sarcastically as she put her coat on a chair and then sat in it.

He at least looked apologetic, "Sorry, so what happened with the autopsy?"

Scully sighed, "Nothing that couldn't be done by some other pathologist, it was just that the other pathologist didn't process the evidence correctly, so after _I_ did, everything fell into place, today they're making an arrest," she said.

"Great, Dr. Scully, the best as usual," he smiled.

She looked only slightly happy, "Yes, well, if I wasn't called in at five this morning, I would celebrate, anyway, to answer your question, yes, I did speak with Skinner, but first, please tell me you got through some of the paperwork that needed to be done for the last two files we did two and three months ago?"

He looked at her ashamed, "Well, I _looked _through them, if that counts,"

She groaned, "Is that all you did?!"

"Well, no, I also sharpened some pencils, and cleaned some of my desk," he offered.

Scully looked at him in disbelief and at his desk, which still held a bunch of files.

"So am I to assume that I am to do them?" she asked wearily.

"Well you do type faster then I do," he said.

"Yeah, because I do all the paper work down here," she complained.

"Well, then it should be a piece of cake for you," he said and recoiled at her glare.

She sighed, "Well, then I don't know if I should give you this then," she said taking out a file from her brief case and waggled it at him.

He instantly sat up and looked at her as if he was a starved dog, "An X-file?"

"Maybe?" she said vaguely.

"Oh, come on Scully, don't hold out on me," He nearly begged.

"Yes," she conceded, "One that Skinner and I see fit to be investigated." she answered.

"So, what is this one," he said as he took the file from her and started looking at it.

"Well, today, we leave for Leafmore, Pennsylvania, to meet with Sarah Matthews, and her daughter Shannon; Kenny Matthews, Sarah's son has been missing for two weeks now," Scully explained.

Mulder looked at her confused and slightly disappointed, "A missing person's case?"

"Well, ultimately yes, but there's an x-file in there, Shannon believes that something…sinister is going on at her school, I would semi-agree, it seems that from the history of the high school, Leafmore high, over twenty-five students have gone missing over the last four months, all unsolved," Scully explained.

"Okay, still missing persons, how is this an x-file?" he asked.

"Well, Shannon believes all of this somehow has to do with, her words, her _creepy _principal, she believes he's turning the students into monsters, and claims to have seen some on the night her brother disappeared," Scully said, "Her mother says Shannon hasn't been the same after that night.".

"So, missing students, and monsters, hmmm, sounds interesting, what do you think, Scully?" he said.

"Well, they have no leads, and since monsters were mentioned, Skinner thought that as a last resort, you and I should go and check this place out," Scully said, "As for what I think, I think this family deserves some answers,"

"All right, then we can go and check this school out, we'll take the case," he said sounding excited.

Scully knew that he was just glad to get out of the office and back into the field, but she knew that he also knew what it felt like to have a sibling go missing. She knew that he would put all his dedication to this case; she just hoped he wouldn't get overwhelmed with it.

"All right, well let's get some lunch before we head out, I haven't had breakfast." Scully said.

"Sure, then we'll swing by my place so I can get some things, and then yours to get your stuff, "Mulder said and followed her out of the office.

X x X

A couple of hours on the road later, Mulder and Scully were pulling up in front of the home of Sarah Matthews.

They got out of the car and walked up to the door. Scully knocked.

Sarah Matthews opened the door. She was slender, and a petite woman. She had dark hair and blue eyes. She also looked exhausted and worn out. Dana figured if had she lost a child, she would have looked the same.

"Hello, Mrs. Matthews, I'm Special agent Dana Scully, we spoke earlier, and this is Special agent Fox Mulder," Scully introduced.

"Oh, yes, come in," Sarah said and moved to let them in.

Sarah led them into the living room.

The house was pretty average. Nothing looked or showed that this family was grieving at the moment.

They sat in awkward silence for a moment.

"Well, as you know my son Kenny is missing," Sarah started, "He was practicing in the gym that night, um…my husband and I were out of town that night,"

"Yes, the report says that," Scully answered wanting to make it easier on Sarah.

She nodded her appreciation, "I know that nearly every angle has been investigated, I only heard of you two through another agent… he told me of the weird things you investigate,"

Mulder only gave her a tight smile. He was never really sure if he liked that _'weird things' _was a phrase that always followed his reputation, not that it was untrue.

"And no one has looked into the school as being apart of the crime, but then the principal, Herbert Friedman, he has money, so he can get the police to look the other way," Sarah stated bitterly.

"We've dealt with situations like that, but don't worry, we can usually get around that," Mulder promised.

"I hope, it's just that I'm so worried about my daughter, I know she thinks she has seen…monsters, but I think it's just a psychological way for her to deal with the loss of her brother, she and he were very close, they are only a year apart," Sarah said, tears brimming her eyes. She wiped at them quickly.

"Well, it can be true, that people make up things so that they could deal with trauma, but I would like to talk with her, if it's all right?" Mulder said.

"Yes, I think she would like to talk to someone who might _believe_ her, she's had a hard time at school, and here at home, everyone thinks she's lost her mind," Sarah said standing up, "I'll send her down,"

Sarah walked upstairs to get Shannon.

Scully and Mulder only looked at each other. Scully knew that Mulder was going to end up feeding into Sarah's delusion, and she didn't know if that was good or bad thing. Scully gave him a look that said _'be careful with this one'_.

He nodded.

Shannon came down.

She was small like her mother, but with short, blonde hair, she too looked like she hadn't gotten much sleep in the last few weeks. She sat in front of them.

"Hello, Shannon," Scully greeted, her voice full of compassion.

Misreading Scully's intent, Shannon looked at her sharply, "Don't patronize me, I know you don't believe me, no one does, but I know what I saw," she said coldly.

"I believe you Shannon, I believe you saw something, and it could possibly help us," Mulder tried.

Shannon scrutinized Mulder for a moment, and then seemed to relax a bit.

"I saw monsters, I know they are responsible…for whatever has happened to my brother," she said and cried, "I don't even know what happened to Kenny, I don't know if he's alive, scared, or…dying somewhere in that damned school."

"It's all right," Scully said, trying to comfort her.

Shannon wiped her eyes and calmed a bit.

"Can you explain what these monsters looked like?" Mulder asked.

Shannon shivered a bit, "Yeah, well they looked like they were human, or at least used to be," she started, "They were dressed like people, but they had pale, nearly deathly like skin, and their faces…their eyes were black, and the teeth, they were so sharp, like for chewing through bone. Some of them had only a tongue where their mouth should be, they were so hideous and they didn't speak, just grunted. Luckily, they didn't see me; I just ran back to my house and called my parents, and then Kenny never came home. I'm so afraid that they've killed him," she said.

"Well, we know that the school hasn't been searched, your mother says it's because the Principal won't allow it," Scully said.

"Yeah, and that's why _I know_ he has something to do with it, I mean you would think he would be more then welcome to it, to find one of his missing students; everyone thinks Kenny ran away, but _I _know he wouldn't…abandon me," Shannon said furiously.

"Well, we can work on that tomorrow, I promise," Scully said.

Shannon nodded, "I hope so, I just want my brother found, I want him back," she said.

Mulder and Scully both nodded, with a silent determined promise.

Mulder and Scully bade the Matthews goodnight and decided that it was time that they headed back to their motel.

"So you believe her?" Scully said as she buckled her seat belt.

"Yeah, I do, she can't have made it up, she has details…_I_ couldn't make any of that up," Mulder said starting the car and heading for the motel.

"Well, tomorrow we can get started on looking into the school, I'll call Skinner and ask for a warrant, just in case, we know he can't be affected by money," Scully said.

"Glad for that; so what do _you_ think?" Mulder asked.

She gave him a wry look, "What do I always think of cases like these Mulder?"

"You don't believe, I know, but the school is the last lead that hasn't been looked into," Mulder sighed.

"I know, we'll just check it out tomorrow, and interview the principal Herbert Friedman," Scully said.

"Sure, I feel sorry for the situation, but it feels good to back out in the field, huh?" Mulder said as he turned into the motel parking lot.

"I think I miss filing paper work," Scully said.

"You're no fun, you know that Scully," he smiled.

She laughed lightly.


	3. Chapter two

**Chapter two **

Mulder and Scully parked in front of Leafmore High. It was a little after three pm and school had just let out. Scully and Mulder were meeting with Herbert Friedman.

Herbert had said that he would meet them in the entrance hall's main office.

Mulder had found it odd that Herbert Friedman wanted to meet there instead of in his office.

They entered the school and headed to the main office that was just to their left. They entered and were told by one of the office workers to take a seat and wait.

There were a few students in the office. They looked at Mulder and Scully curiously.

"I find it strange that Friedman wants to meet here," Mulder said in a low voice so only Scully could hear him.

She gave him an exasperated look, "I'm just glad that he wants to meet us,"

"Me too, but I think its odd that he doesn't want to meet in his office," Mulder said, "I think he doesn't want us to see anymore of the school then we have to," Mulder said.

"Concoct your paranoid theories _after _wetalk with him, okay?" Scully implored.

Mulder nodded, and looked around the office. There was only one office worker. She was filing, obviously trying to ignore them.

"Ah, Agents Mulder and Scully," Herbert Friedman smiled, as he entered the office, "Sorry to keep you waiting."

Mulder and Scully stood.

"Mr. Friedman," Mulder greeted politely.

"Oh sit, so I hear you want to…_investigate_ my school," he said as he stood in front of them.

"Well, yes, it's the last place that hasn't been looked into and the last place that Kenny Matthews was last known to be," Scully said, "And I would think you would want to find Kenny Matthews as much as anyone."

"Oh, yes, tragic, and I know you are here because of the claims of Miss Shannon, his sister," Friedman said.

"Well, yes, I'm sure you know what she has said" Mulder said.

"Yes, these monsters she talks about, it's just a way for her to place blame, so she has picked this school," Friedman said.

"That may be true, but it would at least lay away her fears if we just looked around," Scully said.

"Yes, well, I still believe that Mr. Matthews simply just _ran away_," Friedman said honestly.

"And what makes you say that?" Mulder asked curiously.

"Well, he was a great student, but his home life wasn't, I spoke with him many times, he just wasn't happy, he spent most of his time at school and with his friends, I believe that he just saw that it was time to leave, he did just turn eighteen," Friedman said.

"It's a possibility, but can you say the same about the other twenty-five students that have gone missing?" Mulder questioned.

Friedman scowled, but kept his cool, "Well, I can not say, I do not know _all_ about my students, some just don't speak to anyone and then they take matters into their own hands," he said.

"True, but still we would like to take a look around," Scully said, and for effect handed Herbert the warrant that Skinner had got for her that morning.

Herbert looked at it darkly, but smiled politely, "Well, anything I can do to help the F.B.I.,"

"Thanks for the cooperation," Mulder smiled the same.

"Well, if you could do me just one favor, please do this when my student's aren't around, I don't want them frightened," Friedman said in a near like fatherly manner.

"I think it's possible, when can we conduct our search?" Mulder asked.

"Well, most students stay until about five-thirty, I close the school at six, so how about six this evening, I can tell the janitor Vick Garrison to let you in, and you can have free run of the place without being hindered or disturbed," he promised.

"All right, that would be fine, thank you, Mr. Friedman," Scully said.

All three stood and shook hands. As they left Scully turned toward Friedman.

"I wouldn't try to override the warrant, it might look bad, and bring in more trouble then you really want," Scully said simply.

Friedman smiled tightly, "I wouldn't think of it Miss Scully,"

They walked out of his office. Mulder only looked at Scully surprised. She just smiled lightly at him.

"Just making sure," Scully said.

"Good thinking," Mulder said and guided her out to their car.

X x X

It was still light when Scully and Mulder drove up to the school again at ten to six. Light was still running on summer time. It wouldn't get dark until eight, latest nine pm.

"This school does look a bit creepy, with all the students gone," Mulder said leading Scully back up to the front doors.

"Yes, but then I always thought schools looked creepy without students; unnatural," Scully said uneasily.

Mulder tried the door. It was locked. He knocked on the door and waited. He peered through the window.

"Think he _conveniently_ forgot?" Scully asked.

"Well, if he did, I can shoot out the knobs, we do have a warrant," Mulder said examining the door.

"Unnecessary force, Mulder, how would you explain that to Skinner," Scully said idly.

"_Unnecessary force_, but then you know my definitions run differently then the worlds," he said and banged harder on the door.

She smiled, and looked through the window again, "Yeah, I know; oh, here he comes,"

A tall man made his way to them. He unlocked the door and let them in.

"Sorry, I was on the other side of the school when I realized what time it was," he said.

"It's fine," Scully said.

"Well, I'm here until dawn, and I was instructed to give you these, you are allowed into all the rooms, or wherever you need to be," Vick said and handed Mulder a huge ring with numerous key's.

"Oh, thanks," Mulder said surprised.

"All right, well have a good night, if you need me…well I'll be around," Vick said and went back to work.

Mulder and Scully stared at the keys.

"Guess you really scared him," Mulder said.

"Maybe, or he just wanted to finally be helpful," Scully suggested.

"I was almost afraid, luckily the keys are labeled, otherwise we would spend all night trying to find one key for one door," Mulder said examining the keys.

"Yeah, well, lucky us, creepy school, and many rooms to search through, for what exactly?" Scully said a bit confused.

"Evidence, maybe we can find those monsters," Mulder said.

Scully looked nervous, "We are looking for a _boy_, Mulder,"

"Oh, come on Scully, I thought you didn't believe," he teased lightly seeing her unease.

"I don't," she said firmly, "But why do we need all the keys, why do we have to look everywhere, I'm sure someone would have noticed a body somewhere,"

"Well, we have all night, and a big school, let's just see what we find," Mulder said, "So, shall we get started?" Mulder said pocketing the keys.

"Yeah, remember Mulder we're searching for a _boy_, not monsters." she repeated.

"Still no fun Scully," he said and walked a little further into the main hall.

Scully gave him a faint smile and followed him.


	4. Chapter three

_**Chapter three **_

Mulder and Scully walked a little bit further into the main hall.

"You would think Herbert would have left the lights on, it's a bit dark," Mulder commented.

"Well, there is some light, and we have a couple of hours until complete darkness," Scully said looking at her watch.

They came to the middle and saw two halls, one to the left and one to the right.

"So which way should we start?" Mulder asked.

"You mean you really want to search the whole school?" Scully asked, trying to keep the whine out of her voice.

"Well, yeah, no one has gotten to, so I thought why not make the best of it," Mulder said, looking up and down the halls.

"Well, if we were going to be here after dark, I should have brought the flashlights," Scully said.

"Why didn't you anyway," Mulder asked.

"I thought we were just going for a quick run through," she admitted.

"Well, we can go back to the car," Mulder said heading back to the front doors.

He pushed on the doors, but they wouldn't budge.

"They're locked," he said.

"Well, try one of the millions of keys Vick just gave you," she said.

Mulder looked at them, then frowned, "Well I would, if these were real keys," he said frustrated.

"What do you mean?" Scully asked taking the keys from him.

She looked at them and saw that the keys were all cut the same.

"I mean a lot of keys for the same door, probably one that doesn't exist," Mulder said annoyed, "So I guess _Herb_ didn't really want to help us," he groaned.

"Well what do we do, we need to find Vick to open the door," Scully said.

"Vick _locked _the doors, how much do you want to bet he was in on it," Mulder said, "Or we could still try to look around, Herbert had to have forgotten to tell Vick to lock some of the rooms, and then well go on from there." Mulder said walking back to the middle of the hall.

Scully reluctantly followed, "Mulder, I really think we should just go and find Vick, whether he's involved or not."

"Later, I'm pretty sure we'll run into to him while we search," Mulder said, "So again, which way?"

Scully only looked at him.

"Come on Scully where's your sense of adventure?" he coaxed.

"I have one, I just like the adventure when I've come prepared," she said then rolled her eyes at his frown, "Fine, Mulder, we can look around, but if we find something that tries to kill us, I will kill you," she relented.

"Oh, like…Shannon's monsters?" Mulder lightly teased.

"Shut up, I don't believe that," she said irritated, then became a bit nervous, "But I also don't believe that she didn't see something either," Scully said the unease back in her voice.

"Don't worry, Scully, you have your gun, I have mine, we should be fine," Mulder said.

She only nodded and then he and she jumped about a foot in the air when a piercing scream permeated the air.

They both looked around for the source but the halls echoed so badly it was difficult to pinpoint.

"What the hell was that?!" Scully said nearly hysterical.

"I have no idea, but you know that sense of adventure I was having, I think it left," Mulder said nervously, trying to keep calm for the both of them.

"Was it even human?" Scully asked calming a bit.

"I don't know, but they sounded like they were in a lot of pain," Mulder said.

"I really want to leave," Scully said.

"I know, but we need to find out who that was, they might need our help, and it might be Kenny," Mulder said finally calm.

Mentioning Kenny seemed to make Scully more determined.

"You're right, we have to, so should we start down the left corridor," she asked.

"Yeah, come on," Mulder said and led the way.

There was a bunch of lockers and a few rooms and a main door at the end of the hall. They tried the main door first, but it was locked.

"Should we keep the keys?" Mulder said grumpily.

"No, so I guess we should try one of the other doors," Scully said.

Scully and Mulder walked back down the hallway. The first door to the right was locked, and then the third, finally the next door was opened.

They walked into a room that appeared to be just a lounge. They looked through it and saw that some kids had left their book bags and other things, but found nothing important.

"Okay that room was a dud and Kenny wasn't in there, I really don't think we're going to find anything interesting," Scully said when they were back in the main hall.

"This is getting frustrating, most of the rooms seem locked, and nothing seems useful," Mulder said looking around the hall, "But I'm bothered by the fact of how did Vick get out then?"

Scully looked around the hall, "Well I assume Vick does have the real keys, so I'm guessing that's how he's getting around, but why keep us locked in the main building," she said.

"I have no idea, but we're not done looking," Mulder said moving on to the next door. It opened.

It was a girl's bathroom. It looked a bit worn and unkempt for a school.

"I don't think Vick has been doing his job," Mulder said looking around.

Scully looked in the stalls, but found nothing of interest or use.

Mulder however was looking at a flier on the wall.

"Hey Scully," he said.

She came over to him. He pointed at the poster.

"**THEY ARE AMONG US!" **it said and had a picture of a UFO above a house with a tractor beam aimed on it. It was advertising a meeting for students that believed in the existence of aliens and wanted to discuss it more.

Scully also noted all the vulgar comments written on it calling the idea '_insane_' or making fun of it and the people '_stupid_' enough to even consider it.

"Yeah, well, be lucky we don't put up posters like this at the F.B.I., I think we'd get the same reaction." Scully remarked.

"Yeah, but most of the comments would be aimed at me," Mulder said, "High school and the F.B.I. have too much in common these days," he said incredulously.

Scully shook her head, amused, "Come on _Spooky_, let's keep looking around," Scully said.

He glared at her, "And the pretty girl picks on me too, I feel like _I am _back in high school," he said but smiled.

She rolled her eyes and continued her search. She came to stand under a vent. She noticed that something seemed strange about it.

"It looks like someone has removed it and then put it back on," Scully said pointing at the vent cover.

Mulder examined it, "It has, but why, I doubt students are allowed to go through there," he said then frowned, "But it's screwed in place and I just happened to leave my tool kit in the car," Mulder said looking around for another way to open it.

"Maybe we should keep moving then," Scully said.

They went back into the hall and walked into the next room. It was the boy's bathroom.

The bathroom's lights were dimmed and some were broken. Mulder and Scully entered and looked around.

"Well at least we know the vent doesn't lead here," Scully said, pointing to another vent that was opposite the wall.

Mulder pushed open a stall and then covered his nose

"Good god, what died in here?" Mulder said through his hand.

It took a moment, but then Scully got a whiff of it too. She covered her nose, but had looked at the walls and saw that it seemed to have become darker, but she couldn't really tell.

She motioned for Mulder to look. He did, but couldn't stand the smell.

They both rushed out.

They stood in the hall, thankful the smell didn't travel.

"Vick really doesn't do much around here, I wonder what he gets paid for," Scully said irritated.

"To screw with F.B.I. agents," Mulder said dryly.

Scully looked at Mulder with a bit of unease, "I don't know if I was imagining things, but you saw the wall right, did it look like the room had suddenly got a lot darker then it really should have been?" Scully said hesitantly.

"It did, but I think it's just our eyes, still adjusting to the dark and the school is a bit dim," he offered but his voice held the same tone of doubt as Scully's voice did.

They looked at the door, and decided it was best to stay out of the boy's bathroom altogether.

Mulder and Scully walked down to the other side of the hall. All they found were some more lockers and locked doors, and a student lounge.

They ended back in the middle of the main hall, contemplating their next move.

All the while, they still heard screams and moans, but the sounds seemed to be coming from a far distance. They weren't too worried for the moment.

"I don't know Mulder, everything is locked on this floor, and we can't get out, so what are we supposed to do?" Scully said now sounding fearful.

"I guess we should try upstairs," Mulder said indicating the stairwell before them.

They started up the stairs, but stopped when they heard someone running around the floor above them. They both looked at each other.

"Do you think it's Vick?" Mulder asked.

She shrugged, "I don't know, but really I don't think I want to find out,"

"Well, we don't have much of a choice, we need to go upstairs," he said, but didn't sound too thrilled about the idea anymore.

"Well, you go first, you wanted to explore," she said.

"Yeah, but you brought the x-file, so really you are the lead investigator," Mulder tried.

"Get going," Scully said and pushed Mulder to continue upwards.

He nodded grimly and headed up to the second floor.

On the second floor landing there were rooms to the left and the right and another stairwell going up another floor.

"You pick this time," Scully said.

"Well, we went left first, let's see what's to the right," Mulder said and led Scully.

Again, more locked doors.

"This door has glass, maybe I can break it," Mulder said.

"That's vandalism," Scully said appalled, "How will you explain that to Skinner,"

"Don't worry, he and I have an understanding now," Mulder said still studying the door.

She looked at him surprised, "Oh? And what's that?"

"He understands that I tend to break things, and he has to pay for them," Mulder said taking off his jacket to wrap around his hand, "Scully stand back."

Scully moved to the side and Mulder broke through the glass and opened the door.

They walked in and it was a classroom. They looked through the room and saw that nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Scully was looking through the teacher's desk when Mulder called to her from where he was looking at the bookshelves.

"Yeah," she said.

"I found a screwdriver, you remember that vent?" Mulder said holding up the tool.

"Well, let's finish up this floor then go and check it out," Scully said and they headed out of the room.

As soon as they were outside the door, the floor began to shake violently and loud banging noises could be heard.

"Mulder, what is that?" Scully said alarmed and clung to his arm.

"I have no idea, but it does not sound like a good thing, come on let's just keep moving," he said trying to keep calm, for her and his sake.

On the right side were just locked doors, so decided to head back down the girl's bathroom.

"Okay, so should I lift you, or do you want to lift me," Mulder quipped.

"I don't think this is the right time to be making jokes," she said dryly and took the screwdriver from him.

He clasped his hands to give her footing and she reached up and undid the screws. The vent came off.

"Mulder, I can see through and I think it goes into another room," Scully said.

"Well, you have to go it alone, I can't hoist myself up there, it's too small," Mulder said.

She looked at him alarmed, "Me, alone, with all the weird things happening," she said stepping down.

"Well, either that or we stay in this locked part of the school all night," Mulder said.

"Let's just call someone," she said.

"We don't get reception out here, I don't know why," he said, "I checked as soon as we came, the reception just died, and I think it's affecting your phone too," Mulder said.

Scully took out her cell phone and saw that he was right.

"But why, we got reception in town?" she asked bewildered.

"Yeah, I know, it only happened when we came on campus, something must be knocking out the signal," he said.

"I don't know Mulder, I don't think we should get separated, I don't know where the other side might lead, what if I don't get back to you," she said, "Or…"

"Shannon's monsters might be real and get you," he finished but concern in his voice this time.

She looked at him pained. She didn't want to admit it, but she was starting to become fearful of the idea.

"Don't worry, remember you have your gun, you'll be fine," he said.

She nodded. He clasped his hands again and she climbed up and went through the vent.


	5. Chapter four

**Chapter five **

Mulder and Scully recovered as much as they could and walked out of the attic. They were back in the main hall.

They stood in the hall for a moment.

Mulder looked at his partner. He was worried that she was possibly going into shock. Scully hadn't said anything much. She didn't seem to be connected to reality right now.

He knew that like himself, she was trying to make sense of what they just saw and of the possibility that there might be more and worse things then what they had just seen.

Mulder had seen some weird things while working in the X-files, but nothing this dark and horrifying. Nothing that he couldn't explain or at least to try to.

After realizing that they had been standing still quite awhile, Scully looked at Mulder curiously.

"What are we going to do?" she asked softly.

"Um…I guess head to the courtyard, and look for Herbert," Mulder said.

She only nodded.

"So when are you going to kill me?" he asked suddenly.

Scully looked at him confused.

"You said you would kill me if something tried to kill you, so I'm waiting," he said with a small smile.

Finally, she smiled, laughed a little, "Mulder, don't worry, I'm fine, I just don't know what to make of what's going on, it's hard to grasp for me," she said and sight, "I couldn't explain what I saw back there," she said honestly.

"Don't worry, I can't either, I just know that we need to get out of here," Mulder said.

"What about Kenny, and those other students, it's obvious that Friedman and that Denny Walden are up to something, Denny did seem to imply that Friedman had something to do with Kenny's disappearance," Scully said.

"You still want to keep looking?" he asked surprised.

"No, and yes, we need to find those students, if they are here, and if something is going on here, I want to find out," Scully said.

"All right, well, let's find Herbert, and hope we don't find anymore monsters, or the worse one's Denny talked about," Mulder said.

Scully nodded and they headed toward the door that led to the Courtyard.

The courtyard had many benches and light posts.

Mulder and Scully sat near the fountain in the middle. They said nothing for a moment.

"It's almost dark, Mulder," Scully said looking at the fading light from the ground.

"I know, but at least when the timers go off, I'm pretty sure that the lights will come on," Mulder said indicating the light posts.

"Glad for that, we'll have some safety," Scully said and took out her gun and checked her clip, "I don't know how much we'll need, I only have this full clip and one extra,"

"Yeah, me too, and still I can't get any reception; no one will be expecting us tonight," Mulder said checking his phone again, and taking out his gun.

"Well, we need to find Herbert, or Vick, so that they could open this school and we can get out of here, and then we could question them," Scully said.

"I think Herb was expecting this, I don't think he plans for us to make it through the night," Mulder said.

"Well, I refuse to just wait here for him to take us out," Scully said and stood up.

Mulder nodded, "Well where should we start, this school is pretty big,"

"Well let's start with…the classrooms maybe, make sure that there really is no one locked in with us," Scully suggested.

Mulder looked around the courtyard. It had many doors and branched out in four sections.

"It's really big, it's going to take a while to figure things out," he said.

"Yeah, well, let's just start, maybe the doors that are part of the main school will house the classrooms," Scully suggested.

They found the door to the classrooms in the south part of the school.

Mulder cautiously walked in with his gun in stance.

They crept quietly in.

Near a locker, a group of the monsters they had seen upstairs had gathered and seemed to be eating something.

The biters hadn't noticed them yet. They both just looked at each other, unsure of what to do, afraid of what they needed to do.

Mulder raised his gun and aimed. Scully followed suit. They killed the four biters.

"I really don't want to deal with this," Scully said walking over to the bodies.

Studying them, trying to figure out what there were, or once where, but she didn't let her mind wander there yet. She had no proof.

"I don't either, maybe we should just try and find a way out of here," Mulder said following her.

Scully looked closer at the things, "God, Mulder what were they, and how were they created?"

"I have no idea, but we need to keep moving; from the way Denny was talking, I'm sure there are more, and worse roaming the school," Mulder said looking around the hall.

"Yeah," she said.

They heard a loud bang and then a growl coming from down the hall.

"Let's deal with that later, I think I hear a noise coming from inside this classroom and it sounds a lot smaller then what's down the hall," Mulder said indicating the room next to them.

Scully nodded.

Mulder opened the door, readying for what ever may attack, but instead he saw a student working on the computer.

"Hey," Mulder said, but the boy didn't respond.

The student was wearing headphones; tuning out the world.

Scully and Mulder walked into the room.

Scully tapped him on the shoulder and he jumped.

"Whoa, sorry…," he started, but saw their guns.

Mulder and Scully holstered them for the moment.

"Sorry, we're F.B.I. agents, we're locked in," Mulder explained.

"Okay," he said slowly, still confused, "I'm Stan Jones," he said and stood.

"Agents, Mulder and Scully," Mulder said pointing out who was who.

"So what are you still doing here, your principal said that students left by five-thirty?" Scully said.

"Oh, crap," Stan said looking at his watch, "I was working on a project, I totally forgot,"

"No matter, the school has been locked down, like I said we're locked in," Mulder said.

Stan sighed, and then looked at them curiously, "So why did you have your guns out?"

"I'm supposing you haven't seen anything weird going on then?" Mulder asked.

"Nah, I've been here since three, never left," Stan said, and then looked at them suspiciously, "Why?" he asked.

"Well, you're coming with us now, so unfortunately, you'll see soon enough," Scully said, "Get your things lets go, we have to find Friedman so we can get out of here,"

Stan looked at her, still confused, but didn't argue or question anymore. He turned off the computer and got his bag.

They walked back into the hall. The banging noise came again with a louder growl.

"What the hell is that?" Stan asked.

"We don't know, but we're about to see," Mulder said taking out his gun.

Scully did the same.

They walked down the hall. They heard a rumbling from behind a wall. Mulder stopped Scully and Stan.

"Hey, Stan you got something useless I can throw," Mulder asked quietly.

"How about my Calculus book," Stan offered looking through his book bag.

Mulder smiled at Scully, "Ah, to be young again,"

She slightly smiled, "What are you thinking?"

"Just get ready to shoot; don't freeze on me, Scully," Mulder said and aimed the book towards the wall that the thing seemed to be behind.

Mulder threw it as hard as he could and was correct in his assumption.

Another monster burst through the wall. This one was much bigger then the little things they had dealt with. It looked like whatever body it had, became just one big arm with teeth.

Scully had already started shooting when it entered. It fell to the ground dead.

"Okay, so I wasn't expecting that," Mulder said stunned.

"I think I miss those little things," Scully said.

"Yeah, me too….hey where's Stan?" Mulder said looking around the hall.

Scully tore her gaze from the thing's body, looking around, "I don't know."

Mulder and Scully walked back to the room they had found Stan. Stan was standing near the back of the room, looking completely fearful.

"What was that?" he asked.

"We don't know, but we think that Herbert Friedman and Denny Walden might," Scully said.

"I just want to go home," Stan whined.

"Us too, but we can't get out. We need to find your principal. Where might his office be?" Mulder said.

"I know the school well enough, but actually I've never seen Principal Friedman's office," Stan said, "I've only been here a few weeks."

"Yeah, he wouldn't meet us there either," Mulder said, "Guess we have to search for it, and sorry, we should have warned you, but I didn't think they got _that_ big," he apologized.

"I hope that is _only_ how big they get," Stan said.

"Well, let's get back out there," Scully said.

"You wouldn't happen to have another gun on you, would you?" Stan asked.

"No, but just stick with us," Scully said kindly, "We can protect you,"

All three walked back into the hall and back towards the monster's body.

"These things are everywhere. I think we've been set up, because I'm pretty sure someone would have noticed these things before," Mulder said.

"I've never seen these things ever," Stan said.

"I wouldn't have thought you had," Scully said, "But I think you're right Mulder, Herbert knew that we were coming and now these things are running loose; he means to kill us," Scully said.

"We've gotten too close," Mulder said simply.

The three looked at the monster's body.

"Once we run out of ammo, we're done for," Scully said solemnly.

Mulder looked at his watch, "In about half an hour it will be dark, then from there we have about nine hours until daylight,"

"By then this school should be infested," Scully said.

"Yeah, but maybe these things will go underground by daylight; they don't like light remember," Mulder said.

"Nine hours is a long time for them to come up and wander," Stan said.

"We need portable light and ammunition," Scully said.

"Vick might have some flashlights," Stan said.

"Yeah, we need to find him, if those things haven't yet," Mulder said.

"Well, then let's be the first to find him," Scully said.

"Sure, but let's just check out this building first, make sure there are no more students, I would hate to leave someone else to find these things," Mulder suggested.

Stan and Scully nodded.

They looked through most of the downstairs classrooms, but no one seemed to be there, and luckily neither were there any more monsters.

"So what is the F.B.I. doing here?" Stan asked.

"We are looking into the disappearance of Kenny Matthews," Mulder answered.

"Finally the school's being searched. No one has looked here because of Mr. Friedman," Stan said.

"Yeah, we know, and now I don't know if was to protect _people _or his secret," Scully said looking into one of the rooms, "Hey, I found a Chemistry lab,"

"Come on Scully, you can play with the labs back at the bureau," Mulder said lightly looking through another room.

She glared at him, "I was thinking more like weaponry," she said.

"And what can you make, a bomb? Won't that kill us too?" Stan said.

"Ugh, if you're both gonna fight me, then you keep moving, I want to look in here," Scully said and walked into the room.

Stan and Mulder watched after her.

"Should we stay?" Stan said uncertainly.

"I haven't heard anything roaming around, let's just go and check out what's upstairs. She'll be fine," Mulder said.

They walked upstairs and found that the door to the hall had been locked with a heavy chain and padlock.

"Can you pick it?" Stan asked.

"No, I don't have the equipment. What about you," Mulder asked examining the lock.

"Nope, I can pick other kinds of locks, but this is heavy duty," Stan said.

"Yeah, well, let's get back to Scully, make sure she's all right, and maybe she found something," Mulder said.

They both walked back to the Chemistry lab.

They found Scully sitting at the teacher's desk reading a document.

"Hey. Anything?" Mulder asked her.

"Yeah, actually," she said and placed an old pistol with ammunition and flashlight on the desk.

"All right Scully," Mulder said, "But what would that be doing in a class room?" he asked confounded.

"Someone knows something, anyway, the flashlight is cheap," Scully said.

"Can I get a gun?" Stan asked.

Mulder and Scully looked at each other.

"Yes; you know how to use this one," Scully said handing Stan the old pistol.

"Yeah, my granddad shows me his old collection all the time," Stan said examining the gun.

"Just make sure you kill those things and not some person," Scully said.

"So what are you reading?" Mulder asked looking at the file in her hand.

"I really don't know, I found it in this teacher's desk," Scully said.

"Do you know whose class room this is?" Mulder asked to Stan.

"I don't know, I don't take Chem.," Stan said, "Although Mr. Walden does substitute it sometimes."

"Might be his, either way, it's weird, it's talking about some weird plant, here, listen**; **_The Mortifilia comes in the form of ciphers. Classification appears difficult. This endemic plant allows microscopic buds to appear, which do not appear destined to form a new plant but to possibly generate other leaves (for closer examination). The parasites and spider-like appearance explain its capacity to propagate in an excessive manner. Hypothesis verified by the presence of an oversized sucker ensuring proliferation. Detailed examination of the buds: the bud shows a stupefying germinative power. Hundreds of lines at the neck confirm that the species has phenomenal longevity. Cutting the xylems: the ducts are completely dry, no trace of humidity. How are these chlorophyll cells irrigated?_

_The black substance released comes from glands located on the root; it is poisonous to its biological environment._

_During a darkness - light - darkness sequence, variations in dioxygen concentration are observed, whether DCPIP is present or not. The plant is particularly sensitive to exposure: it fears the light! This plant transgresses the rules of phytology._

_Molecular analyses show genetic associations that enable the Mortifilia to be defined as a non-recombinant isolate at the genetic level; this means that it does not have a sexual process for exchanging genetic material, but a parasexual one. I attempted to experiment during which a transient diploid node was formed. In this node, mitotic crossover was produced at low frequency. The diploid node then self-haploided through the loss of chromosomes using this system, two distinct species could exchange genetic material._

_Conclusion:_

_It is certain that the Mortifilia possesses abnormal properties. Notwithstanding its incredible longevity, the plant is particularly receptive to crossbreeding. Research must be continued and the genotype of these cells must be examined in detail;_ and there are theses pictures, I really don't know what to make of it, I've never seen it or heard of it, this plant, that seems to fear light," Scully said baffled.

"Well, it exists, and someone is researching it, maybe it can explain what's going on with these things that are running loose, someone is crossbreeding it," Mulder said.

"Yes, but with what?" she asked.

"I don't really want to guess; we need to focus on our search, just keep the file," Mulder said looking through the file.

"All right, Stan can you keep it in your bag?" Scully asked.

"Yeah, sure," he said and emptied out his bag and put the file in it, "I guess I really won't be needing these notes now, what a waste," he said looking at the class notes.

"So what did you guys find?" Scully asked.

"Well nothing really, just a door that leads upstairs, but it's locked with a heavy duty padlock and chain," Mulder said.

"Well, in the corner over there, there is sulfuric acid, it should do the trick," Scully said.

"Oh," was all Mulder said.

He walked over and filled a beaker with the acid.

All three walked back up to the door. Mulder carefully poured it over the chain and they watched it burn through the metal.

"Well, I guess we continue," Mulder said.


	6. Chapter five

**Disclaimer; Mulder and Scully belong to Chris Carter. **

**Obscure belongs to; **

_Developer: Hydravision _

_Publisher: Europe - Microids _

_Publisher: North America - Dreamcatcher Interactive _

_**Chapter five**_

Mulder, Scully, and Stan entered into the second floor hallway. It was quiet.

"Hey, someone is here," Mulder said softly to the two.

Stan and Scully looked up to the left part of the hallway. There was a young man seemingly to be having a fight with one of the vending machines.

"Should we go and see what he's up to?" Stan asked hesitantly.

"We have to," Scully said.

Mulder took out his gun. Scully looked at him questioningly.

"Just to be safe," he said.

Stan did the same.

"He's a student," Scully said.

"Nothing is what it seems in this school, I don't want to be caught off guard," Mulder said, "I'll go and talk to him, just stay behind me,"

Scully and Stan followed. Scully still didn't take out her gun.

"Hey!" Mulder called.

The young man didn't respond; he just kept pounding on the vending machine.

Mulder got closer, and hesitantly touched his shoulder.

The man swung around with knife in his hand. He nearly caught Mulder, but Mulder had backed away from him quickly, and was surprised to hear a gunshot.

The young man feel to the floor.

"Oh my god, what are you doing?!" Scully shouted at Stan, appalled.

Stan only looked at her, seemingly stunned at what he had done.

"Reflex," Stan offered.

"Reflex, you just killed a person," she said kneeling down besides the young man.

"I had to, if he kills one of you, or both, I would be on my own, and I don't want to die here," Stan said.

"Scully, I don't think he was a person," Mulder interrupted from down next to the student.

She looked at him confused, then looked at the body.

The student had already looked like he had been dead for at least a few days.

"I don't understand, how can that be, you just shot him," she said.

"Let's not waste time trying to figure things out, we need to find Friedman, and the janitor, I want to get out of here," Stan said.

Mulder and Scully both agreed.

"Well, it sounds quiet, let's do a quick sweep for anyone up here, and Scully, it's a free-for-all, don't hesitate to shot anything trying to kill you," Mulder said.

She un-holstered her gun and nodded. She headed up the right side. Mulder decided to search the rest of the left side of the hall, Stan followed Mulder.

Stan and Mulder walked into the next room over.

"Oh, hey, it's Friedman's office," Stan said.

"You knew his office was up here?" Mulder said looking at him.

"Well, no not necessarily, I don't usually come to see him," Stan said starting to look around, "I want to check out his office,"

"Don't screw with things," Mulder said then turned to the secretary's desk, "He has messages," Mulder said seeing the red light blinking on an answering machine.

Mulder pushed the play button;

**_Today, at 5:38 P.M._**

_Hello?_

_Mrs. Smith? This is Ms. Wickson._

_Could you ask Mr. Friedman to come see_

_me as soon as possible?_

_It's an emergency! I can't leave the infirmary!_

_Make sure he comes quick! Thanks!_

**_Today, at 6:50 P.M._**

_Herbert?_

_If…if you're there, pick up the phone..._

_Please... come quickly..._

_I, I don't know what's going on, but I.. I think _

_it has something to do with the experiments.._

_I saw several students... who.. well..._

_It's really bad, come quick!_

_Oh no!_

**_End of_ messages.**

Mulder contemplated the messages.

"Oh my god, those things used to be students, then?" Stan said horrified as he came out of Herbert's office.

"It seems that way, we need to find Scully," Mulder said.

"Sure, I also know where to find Freidman," Stan said showing Mulder a sticky note.

"I'm in the library if you need to see me, Herbert," Mulder read, "Well, at least we know where to find him,"

"I also found this weird thing," Stan said handing Mulder a round object with a point.

"I have no idea of what it could be, maybe Scully knows," Mulder said.

"Yeah, but uh, Vick usually locks up the school grounds, I'm sure the library will be locked too," Stan said.

"Well let's get Scully and figure out what to do next," Mulder said and they both headed into the main hallway.

Scully was already in the hallway.

"Hey, did you find anything?" Mulder asked as they neared her.

"A bunch of stuff actually, one of those monsters, and Denny's satchel, he had transcripts of students, some from the students that were missing in fact, a flashlight, and this compass needle," she said slightly annoyed, and showing the same object Mulder had.

"Glad that you're all right, and hey we found one just like it," Mulder said showing his compass needle.

"What do they go to?" Scully asked.

"Maybe to the map in Friedman's office," Stan said.

"What map?" Mulder and Scully said in unison.

"There is this big map in Friedman's office, come on I'll show you," Stan said and led them back to the office.

"Here," he said and pointed at it.

"Well, you deal with it, I have to show Scully the messages," Mulder said handing Stan the compass needles.

Stan looked like he wanted to argue, but thought better of it.

Scully followed Mulder curiously. He played the messages for her.

"So those things we're killing used to be students," Scully said sadly.

"Yeah, and Denny and Herbert, and obviously Ms. Wickson the nurse, are all in on it," Mulder said.

"We need to find them, and get out of here, I also found another student, Mulder, he turned into one of those things we saw in the hall, I thought he was normal, I stepped back in front of the window, the light killed him," Scully said.

"It's getting darker, I don't know what will happen…" Mulder said, but was interrupted by Stan.

"Hey, I got the thing to work, turns out it's Friedman's safe," Stan said.

Mulder and Scully walked into the office.

In the safe was another gun, a key to the library, a video cassette labeled **SUBJECT 37**, and an old letter.

Mulder gave the gun to Scully.

"Well, at least we can open the door to the library, and I wonder what's on this video tape; what's the letter?," Mulder said looking at Scully who was reading the aged paper.

She read it out loud to them, _"My dear Herbert, I am writing to you in secret. Leonard would leave me if he knew I was __meddling in his work. You are his twin brother and sometimes it seems to me that you understand him better than I. That is why I would like you to speak to him. We quarreled last night. He is completely obsessed with his research and I fear he will go too far. He wants to attempt the experiment on himself, I am certain. You know him, he is capable of it. That would be foolish, the subjects treated are only stable after three weeks. There may be secondary effects that appear much later. Please, try to reason with him. Yours_, _Elisabeth.,"_

"Herbert has a brother, and Elisabeth is the nurse isn't she?" Mulder asked.

"Twin apparently, and yeah, but what experiment, the nurse talked about it too, just now, but this paper is really old?" Scully asked.

"I have no idea, but from the looks of it, I can't tell if they are failing or succeeding, what do the want to achieve with these experiments?" Mulder said.

"Well, if they are dealing with that plant, the _Mortifilia, _they mean to achieve immortality, but I don't understand how," Scully said.

"Let's find Herbert and make him explain what's going on," Mulder said, "And find some place to play this video, I want to know who or what is subject 37."

The three exited the building and followed Stan to the Library building.

They walked into the main hall of the library building. They saw, sitting on the stairs, another student. He didn't notice them.

"Mulder, it's another one, like I saw in the class room upstairs, you have to kill it," she said softly.

"I didn't like it before, but now I don't even more, now that I know that these are students," Mulder said.

"I could do it," Stan said.

"Just do it, before it turns into a monster," Scully said.

Stan aimed and shot it from behind. It didn't make any sound.

"Herbert has to pay for this, these were just students, not even adults, not enough experience with life yet," Mulder said walking over and looking at the dead body.

"He will, let's find him," Scully said.

"The library is closed," Stan said jiggling the door handles.

"Great, what now," Scully said.

"Let's search the rooms here, maybe Herbert hid it in one," Mulder said.

The three separated.

Mulder found a safe in one of the offices. He obviously didn't have the code.

"Damn it," he swore and returned to the main hall.

"I found a safe, but no code," Mulder said seeing Scully.

"I found a plain piece of paper with something scribbled out," Scully said.

"Let me see it, and your flashlight," Mulder said.

Scully handed both over, looking at him curiously.

Stan came out of the third room and looked at them as Mulder held the flashlight under the piece of paper.

"Got it, 2432, it's either the code, or nothing, let's go check it out," Mulder said triumphantly.

Mulder opened the safe and found the library key, and another letter on aged parchment.

Mulder read the letter to them, "_Dear Leonard and Herbert, I am writing to you as your friend. I have just come out of the Seattle conference where your book "Eternal life is possible" had an explosive effect. Your discoveries totally contradict the theories of Dr. Leon Korsenberg and I expect an unfavorable reaction from the council. You have virulent detractors who fear that your research is immoral and casts a slur on the entire scientific community. I have analyzed the file. Your theory certainly goes against the first law of medical ethics. You understand that without the support of a reputation, it will have no other destiny than sinking into oblivion. And, sadly, I do not have sufficient weight to prevent that. You may find salvation outside the scientific community, you know. I fear that sanctions may even be taken against you and I cannot advise you strongly enough to locate your work in a safe place. I remain, my dear friends, yours sincerely, Your loyal friend, Walt Kerridan."_

"What is he talking about?" Stan asked.

Mulder looked at Scully. She caught his look, "I've studied the medical and scientific field, but I have never heard of any of this, as this Walt says, Herbert and Leonard may have had to push their work underground, and that would explain what we are seeing, I think these monster's are failed attempts at securing longevity, immortality," Scully said.

"Well, let's get Herbert to explain this, I have the key to open the doors," Mulder said and they headed for the main library.

They unlocked the door and entered.

The library was pretty big and filled with ancient looking books.

They heard a rustling of papers on the far-side of the library.

They walked behind a shelf and saw Herbert Friedman sitting at a desk, looking through a bunch of files.

"Well, finally we found you," Mulder said.

Herbert turned startled, "Agents Mulder and Scully," he said.

"What surprised to see us alive?" Mulder said.

"Excuse me, why would I be surprised for that, I take it your search is over," Friedman said.

"No; we haven't found Kenny Matthews, but we have good reason to believe he's here, so just tell us where he is," Scully said showing him all the evidence they had found.

Herbert looked at the papers. He showed no emotion to them.

"I see nothing here that says I have Kenny Matthews," he said coolly.

"All of it incriminates you, Denny Walden, and Elisabeth Wickson too," Scully said.

"Denny Walden seems to think you have everything to do with all that's happening to this school," Mulder said.

"You've spoken the Walden?" Herbert asked, "And what is happening to this school.?" Herbert asked suspiciously.

"You're kidding right, all those _things_ you set lose, those poor students," Scully said incredulously.

"You're goddamn experiments are running lose trying to kill us!" Mulder shouted at the man and grabbed the front of his shirt roughly, "All those missing students are right here, mutated and harmed because of you, what the hell were you doing,"

Herbert seemed to understand what they were saying, but he didn't react.

He pushed Mulder away from him, "I'll take care of it, just tell Vick to let you out, I'll let him know that you are coming,"

"Yeah, and we'll be back with to arrest you and stop you from continuing your research," Mulder said.

"Do what you must, I need to go," Herbert said hurriedly and exited through a door to his right. They heard as he locked it.

Scully turned the knob.

"Where does that door lead to?" Mulder asked Stan who had been silent through the exchange.

"Uh, I have no idea," he said.

"Well a lot good it did us to find Herbert," Mulder said frustrated and kicked the door Herbert had just walked through.

Scully moved over to the desk Herbert had been sitting at. She saw an old newspaper, and a notebook.

Scully read to Mulder and Stan the newspaper article, "**'Destiny** **strikes the Friedman family again.'** _The community is in mourning at the death of Leonard FRIEDMAN. More than a citizen, the city has lost a brilliant, conscientious and dynamic researcher. Leonard worked to advance the work of the brotherhood, not recoiling from any obstacle. The scientific community, despite its differences with the duo, admitted that "He was among those who could have helped us advance in giant steps". As all the events surrounding this unusual family, the death of Leonard Friedman remains enigmatic. Although a good pilot, Leonard lost control of his craft before crashing into the sea. His twin brother Herbert, the only escapee from this terrible accident, was rescued from the open sea off Long Island_.'"

"So his brother died, when," Mulder asked curiously.

"I don't know, the date is faded," Scully said scrutinizing the paper.

"Well long enough for that paper to have aged so much, what's in the notebook," Mulder asked picking it up.

"It looks like a journal," Scully said.

"It's from Leonard, way back in 1895, it says; _The vegetation is really very strange, particularly the trees. Two more porters have disappeared and we have discovered a slashed corpse. The natives are frightened and want to leave the island. Yet, I think we are reaching our goal. The flora is evolving in parallel with our progress, which is difficult, both physically and morally. Bizarrely, the fauna is becoming rarified, the atmosphere leaden, the silence heavy. The specimens found here and the geology show that this island was cut off from the world and has followed a parallel ecological development for three thousand years. But this period of time would not be sufficient to cause such brutal changes. That would need millions of years. Something has accelerated the evolution of the species and this ecosystem. I want to find out what it was. We have a trail: black putrefying matter, which appears overnight on the vegetation, appears to be more and more prevalent as we progress northwards. Traces indicate that this may come from a tubercular plant. Tomorrow, we must reach the volcanic peak. The soil is light in this part of the island, which should facilitate our analyses of the sub-soil. Leonard Friedman, Travel journal, June 21 1895," _Mulder read_._

"1895, from that time to now, Herbert would be 108, not counting from when he was born," Scully said awed.

"Herbert is _way _past 100 then, but how, these experiments are failing, I don't understand," Mulder said confused.

"I don't know, but once an investigation starts, all of it will come to light," Mulder said flipping through the journal.

"Bad joke Mulder," Scully said turning back to the desk.

He looked at her confused then caught what he had said. He smiled slightly at it.

"Anyway, we should get moving, I want out now, it's past dark now," Mulder said indicating the window.

The sun had set and the sky was pitch black.

They exchanged nervous glances.

"I'll show you to the janitor's room," Stan said.

They exited the library and headed to the right of the courtyard to the janitor's room.

As they did though, they heard as something collapsed, something huge.

"God, it sounds like the whole school is collapsing," Scully said nervously.

"No, I would just assume part of it, near the north side it sounds like," Mulder said.

"Never mind, let's just get out of here and call for back up," Scully said continuing with Stan.

Mulder followed.

As they neared the janitor's room, they heard what seemed to be a struggle with something not human.

There was a loud screech.

"You freaky little bastards are not getting out of here that easily, come here," Vick said, and then a gunshot.

Scully, Mulder, and Stan withdrew their guns and hurried over.

There was one last growl and then silence from Vick.

Mulder kicked in the door. They moved to the back of the room and saw something escaping up the air vent.

"Oh god, Mulder," Scully said sounding sick, stepping back slightly.

He looked at her then down, wishing he hadn't. He had been too busy searching for what was leaving, that he didn't realize what it was leaving behind. Stan had moved back to the front of the room quickly.

On the ground was the remains of what used to be human, of what used to be Vick Garrison.

"What the hell happened?" Scully said looking at the torn remains.

"I don't know, but I think we are on our own on this one Scully," Mulder said looking sickened at the sight..


	7. Chapter six

**Chapter six **

Mulder, Scully, and Stan entered the second floor hallway. They heard banging noises.

"Hey, someone is here," Mulder said softly to the two, pointing to the left.

Stan and Scully looked up to the left part of the hallway. There was a young man seemingly to be having a fight with one of the vending machines.

"Should we go and see what he's up to?" Stan asked hesitantly.

"We have to," Scully said.

Mulder took out his gun. Scully looked at him questioningly.

"Just to be safe," he said.

Stan did the same.

"He's a student," Scully said a little alarmed at their behavior.

"Nothing is what it seems in this school. I don't want to be caught off guard," Mulder said, "I'll go and talk to him, just stay behind me," he said starting for the boy.

Scully and Stan followed. Scully still didn't take out her gun.

"Hey!" Mulder called.

The young man didn't respond; he just kept pounding on the vending machine.

Mulder walked closer, and cautiously touched his shoulder.

The man swung around with a knife in his hand. He nearly caught Mulder's arm, but Mulder was quicker at dodging him.

Mulder landed on the floor and was surprised to hear a gunshot.

The young man fell to the floor.

"Oh my god, what are you doing?!" Scully shouted at Stan, appalled.

Stan only looked at her, seemingly stunned at what he had done.

"Reflex?" Stan offered.

"Reflex?! You just killed a person!" she said kneeling down besides the young man and checking for a pulse.

"I had to, if he kills one of you or both, I would be on my own, and I don't want to die here," Stan argued, still shaken.

"Scully, I don't think he was a person," Mulder interrupted the fight as he kneeled down next to the student.

She looked at him confused, and then looked at the body.

The student had already looked like he had been dead for at least a few days.

"I don't understand. How can that be, you _just _shot him," she said.

"Let's not waste time trying to figure things out, we need to find Friedman, and the janitor, I want to get out of here," Stan said.

Mulder and Scully both agreed.

"Well, it sounds quiet, let's do a quick sweep for anyone up here, and Scully, it's a free-for-all, don't hesitate to shot anything trying to kill you," Mulder said.

Scully un-holstered her gun and nodded grimly. She headed up the right side on the hall. Mulder decided to search the rest of the left side of the hall, Stan followed Mulder.

They stopped in front of a door, Principal Herbert Friedman's office.

"Well, at least we found Herb's office," Mulder said opening the door.

The two entered the waiting room. Stan had gone off to the left, Herbert's office.

"Don't screw with things!" Mulder called sternly, and then turned to the secretary's desk, "He has messages," Mulder said seeing the red light blinking on an answering machine.

Mulder pushed the play button:

_**Today, at 5:38 P.M.**_

_Hello?_

_Mrs. Smith? This is Ms. Wickson._

_Could you ask Mr. Friedman to come see me as soon as possible?_

_It's an emergency! I can't leave the infirmary!_

_Make sure he comes quickly! Thanks!_

_**Today, at 6:50 P.M.**_

_Herbert?_

_If…if you're there, pick up the phone..._

_Please... come quickly..._

_I-I don't know what's going on, but I…I think it has something to do with the experiments…_

_I saw several students... Who… well...It's really bad, come quick!_

_Oh no! _

_**End of messages.**_

Mulder contemplated the messages. Stan came over to him.

"Oh my god, those things used to be students, then?" Stan said horrified.

"It seems that way, we need to find Scully," Mulder said.

"Sure, I also know where to find Freidman," Stan said showing Mulder a sticky note.

"_I'm in the library if you need to see me, Herbert_," Mulder read, "Good, now we can get out of here,"

"I also found this weird thing, it was on his desk," Stan said handing Mulder a round object with a point.

"I have no idea of what it could be, maybe Scully knows," Mulder said and led Stan back out into the hallway.

Scully was already standing in the hallway.

"Hey, did you find anything?" Mulder asked as they neared her.

"A bunch of stuff actually. One of those monsters and Denny's satchel. He had transcripts of students, some from the students that were missing in fact, a flashlight, and this compass needle," she said slightly annoyed, and showing the same object Mulder had.

"Glad that you're all right and hey we found one just like it," Mulder said showing his compass needle.

"What do they go to?" Scully asked.

"Maybe to the map in Friedman's office," Stan said.

"What map?" Mulder and Scully said in unison.

"There is this big map in Friedman's office with two knobs on it. Come on I'll show you," Stan said and led them back to the office.

"Here," he said pointing to the map.

"Well, you deal with it, I have to show Scully the messages," Mulder said handing Stan the compass needles.

Stan looked like he wanted to argue, but thought better of it.

Scully followed Mulder curiously. He played the messages for her.

"So those things we're killing used to be students," Scully said sadly.

"Yeah, and Denny and Herbert, and obviously Ms. Wickson the nurse, are all in on it," Mulder said.

"We need to find them, and get out of here. That monster, or student, Mulder, he turned into one of those things we saw in the hall. I thought he was normal. I stepped back in front of the window, the sunlight killed him instantly," Scully said.

"It's getting darker; I don't know what will happen…" Mulder said, but was interrupted by Stan.

"Hey, I got the thing to work, turns out its Friedman's safe," Stan said.

Mulder and Scully walked into the office.

In the safe was another gun, a key to the library, a videocassette labeled **SUBJECT 37**, and an old letter.

Mulder gave the gun to Scully.

"Well, at least we can open the door to the library," Mulder said, and looked at the videotape, "I wonder what's on this videotape; what's the letter?" Mulder said looking at Scully who was reading the aged paper.

She read it aloud to them, _"My dear Herbert, I am writing to you in secret. Leonard would leave me if he knew I was meddling in his work. You are his twin brother and sometimes it seems to me that you understand him better than I. That is why I would like you to speak to him. We quarreled last night. He is completely obsessed with his research and I fear he will go too far. He wants to attempt the experiment on himself, I am certain. You know him; he is capable of it. That would be foolish; the subjects treated are only stable after three weeks. There may be secondary effects that appear much later. Please, try to reason with him. Yours_, _Elisabeth,"_

"Herbert has a brother, and Elisabeth is the nurse isn't she?" Mulder asked.

"Twin, and yeah she is, but what experiment, she just mentioned it _now_, but this paper is really old, Mulder," Scully said.

"I have no idea, but from the looks of it, I can't tell if they are failing or succeeding, what do the want to achieve with these experiments?" Mulder said.

"Well, if they are dealing with that plant, the _Mortifilia, _they mean to achieve immortality, but I don't understand how," Scully said.

"Let's find Herbert and make him explain what's going on," Mulder said, "And find some place to play this video, I want to know what or who is _subject 37_."

The three exited the building and followed Stan to the Library building.

They walked into the main hall of the library building. They saw, sitting on the stairs, another student. He didn't notice them.

"Mulder, it's another one, like I saw in the classroom upstairs, you have to kill it," she said softly.

"I didn't like it before, but now I don't even more, now that I know that these are students," Mulder said.

"I could do it," Stan said, "I mean I don't _want_ to, but…," he said hating how he sounded when he volunteered.

"Just do it, before it turns into a monster," Scully said looking sick and turning away.

Stan aimed and shot it from behind. It didn't make any sound.

"Herbert has to pay for this. These were just students, not even adults, not enough experience with life yet," Mulder said walking over and looking at the dead body.

"He will," Scully said.

"Come on," Stan said, walking over to the library entrance.

He opened the door. The library was dark and quiet, except for the rustling of papers on the far side of the library.

The three walked over and behind a shelf, they found Herbert Friedman sitting at a desk, looking through a bunch of files.

"Well, finally we found you," Mulder said.

Herbert turned startled, "Agents Mulder and Scully," he said trying to cover up what he was looking at.

"What surprised to see us alive?" Mulder asked slightly irritated.

"Excuse me? Why would I be surprised by that? I take it your search is over," Friedman said calmly.

"No. We haven't found Kenny Matthews, but we have good reason to believe he's here, so just tell us where he is," Scully said showing him all the evidence they had found.

Herbert looked at the papers. He showed no emotion to them.

"I see nothing here that says _I have Kenny Matthews_," he said coolly.

"All of it incriminates you, Denny Walden, and Elisabeth Wickson too!" Scully snapped.

"Denny Walden seems to think you have _everything_ to do with all that's happening to this school," Mulder said.

"You've spoken with Walden?" Herbert asked, "And what is happening to this school?" he asked suspiciously.

"You're kidding right? All those _things_ you set lose, those poor students," Scully said incredulously.

"You're goddamn experiments are running loose trying to kill us!" Mulder shouted at the man and grabbed the front of his shirt roughly, "All those missing students are right here, mutated and harmed because of you, what the hell were you doing?!,"

Herbert seemed to understand what they were saying, but he didn't react.

He pushed Mulder away from him, "I'll take care of it, just tell Vick to let you out; I'll let him know that you are coming,"

"Yeah, and we'll be back to arrest you and stop you from continuing your research," Mulder said.

"Do what you must, I need to go," Herbert said hurriedly and exited through a door to his right. They heard as he locked it.

Scully turned the knob.

"Where does that door lead to?" Mulder asked Stan who had been silent through the exchange.

"Uh, I have no idea," he said.

"Well a lot good it did us to find Herbert," Mulder said frustrated and kicked the door Herbert had just walked through.

Scully moved over to the desk Herbert had been sitting at. She saw an old newspaper, and a notebook.

Scully read to Mulder and Stan the newspaper article, "**Destiny strikes the Friedman family again. **_The community is in mourning at the death of Leonard FRIEDMAN. More than a citizen, the city has lost a brilliant, conscientious and dynamic researcher. Leonard worked to advance the work of the brotherhood, not recoiling from any obstacle. The scientific community, despite its differences with the duo, admitted that "He was among those who could have helped us advance in giant steps". As all the events surrounding this unusual family, the death of Leonard Friedman remains enigmatic. Although a good pilot, Leonard lost control of his craft before crashing into the sea. His twin brother Herbert, the only escapee from this terrible accident, was rescued from the open sea off Long Island_.'"

"So his brother died, when," Mulder asked curiously.

"I don't know, the date is faded," Scully said scrutinizing the paper.

"Well long enough for that paper to have aged so much; what's in the notebook," Mulder asked picking it up.

"It looks like a journal," Scully said.

"It's from Leonard, way back in _1895_, it says; _the vegetation is really very strange, particularly the trees. Two more porters have disappeared and we have discovered a slashed corpse. The natives are frightened and want to leave the island. Yet, I think we are reaching our goal. The flora is evolving in parallel with our progress, which is difficult, both physically and morally. Bizarrely, the fauna is becoming rarified, the atmosphere leaden, the silence heavy. The specimens found here and the geology show that this island was cut off from the world and has followed a parallel ecological development for three thousand years. But this period of time would not be sufficient to cause such brutal changes. That would need millions of years. Something has accelerated the evolution of the species and this ecosystem. I want to find out what it was. We have a trail: black putrefying matter, which appears overnight on the vegetation, appears to be more and more prevalent as we progress northwards. Traces indicate that this may come from a tubercular plant. Tomorrow, we must reach the volcanic peak. The soil is light in this part of the island, which should facilitate our analyses of the sub-soil. Leonard Friedman, Travel journal, June 21 1895," _Mulder read_._

"1895, from that time to now, Herbert would be one-hundred and eight, but if counting to when he might have been born he'd be over one-hundred and fifty," Scully said awed.

"Herbert is _way _past 100 then, but how? These experiments are failing, I don't understand," Mulder said confused, "But once an investigation starts, all of it will come to light," Mulder said flipping through the journal.

"Bad joke Mulder," Scully said turning back to the desk.

He looked at her confused then caught what he had said. He smiled slightly at it.

Mulder found a loose page in the back of the book.

"Hey, there's more," he said to Scully. She turned her attention back to him.

He read aloud, "_Dear Leonard and Herbert, I am writing to you as your friend. I have just come out of the Seattle conference where your book "Eternal life is possible" had an explosive effect. Your discoveries totally contradict the theories of Dr. Leon Korsenberg and I expect an unfavorable reaction from the council. You have virulent detractors who fear that your research is immoral and casts a slur on the entire scientific community. I have analyzed the file. Your theory certainly goes against the first law of medical ethics. You understand that without the support of a reputation, it will have no other destiny than sinking into oblivion. And, sadly, I do not have sufficient weight to prevent that. You may find salvation outside the scientific community, you know. I fear that sanctions may even be taken against you and I cannot advise you strongly enough to locate your work in a safe place. I remain, my dear friends, yours sincerely, your loyal friend, Walt Kerridan."_

"What is it talking about?" Stan asked.

Mulder looked at Scully inquiringly.

She caught his look, "I've studied in the medical and scientific field, but I have never heard of any of this, as this Walt says, Herbert and Leonard may have had to push their work underground, and that would explain what we are seeing, I think these monster's are failed attempts at securing longevity; immortality," Scully said.

"Makes a twisted kind of sense, but still, how is Herbert over one hundred if these tests show the failure of the research?" Mulder said.

"I guess the question really is why do any research if he's succeeded on himself?" Scully said.

"We're missing something huge here," Mulder said thoughtfully, "Anyway, we should get moving, it's past nightfall and I want out of this school," he said indicating the window.

The sun had set and the sky was pitch black now.

They exchanged nervous glances.

"I'll show you to the janitor's room," Stan said.

They exited the library and headed to the right of the courtyard to the janitor's room.

As they walked over to the janitor's room, they heard as something collapsed, something huge. They stopped as the ground shook violently.

"God, it sounds like the whole school is collapsing," Scully said nervously.

"No. I would just assume part of it, near the north side it sounds like," Mulder said.

"Never mind, let's just get out of here and call for back up," Scully said.

Stand continued. Mulder and Scully followed.

As they neared the janitor's room, they heard what seemed to be a struggle between a human with something not human.

There was a loud screech.

"You freaky little bastards are not getting out of here that easily, come here," Vick said, and then a gunshot.

Scully, Mulder, and Stan withdrew their guns and hurried over.

There was one last growl, a loud scream of pain, and then silence from Vick.

Mulder kicked in the door. They moved to the back of the room and saw something escaping up the air vent.

"Oh god, Mulder," Scully said sounding sick, stepping back slightly.

He looked at her then down, wishing he hadn't. He had been too busy searching for what was leaving, that he didn't realize what it was leaving behind. Stan had moved back to the front of the room quickly.

On the ground were the remains of what used to be human, of what used to be Vick Garrison.

"What the hell happened?" Scully said looking at the torn remains.

"I don't know, but I think we are on our own on this one Scully," Mulder said looking sickened at the sight.


	8. Chapter seven

**Chapter seven **

They avoided stepping in the torn up body as they looked around it.

"It looks like whatever it was came from the bottom vent, and then went up the air duct," Mulder said.

"I'm not too interested in how he died," Stan said, his back to the body, and sounding beyond freaked out.

Scully had started to search the room, as had Mulder.

"He carried heavy weaponry, he has a pump-action shotgun, fully loaded too," Mulder said looking through Vick's locker, "And various ammunition and a few flashlights."

"What would a janitor be doing with a fully loaded _shotgun _on _school property_?" Scully asked from a backroom.

"Who knows? Maybe he knew what was going on. Maybe that was why he was killed, but we should keep it anyway, and I found this key to the dining hall, ground floor," Mulder called.

"Well we can look at that tape, Mulder, I found a surveillance room," Scully said coming back into the main room.

She covered Vick's body with a sheet so that they wouldn't have to see it.

"Keep your guns out, whatever was here may come back," Mulder said handing her some ammunition from Vick's locker, and grabbing a couple of working flashlights.

"Putting them away was never an option," Scully said reloading her gun.

Stan did the same.

The three moved to the back room.

"They have most of the school covered," Stan said awed and annoyed, "Who permitted this, I didn't even know they had surveillance on the students,"

"Well, it's a good thing. It gives us evidence if those monsters show up in the monitored areas, anyway, let me see the tape, Scully," Mulder said.

"There's another tape here," Stan said picking it up.

"What's it labeled?" Mulder asked.

"It's just labeled _**Surveillance**_," Stan said handing it to Mulder.

"Well, let's check it out first, see what Vick has been watching," Mulder said turning on the VCR and TV.

There was already a tape in it. Mulder pushed play.

It showed the infirmary.

"That's Ms. Wickson, the nurse," Stan said.

Ms. Wickson was signaling to the camera, apparently asking for help. Behind her, a couple of mutated students left the room.

"Yeah, and there goes a couple of those students before they transformed," Mulder said and looked at the time, "It was recorded around the same times as the messages," he said.

"We need to get to her," Scully said.

"Yeah, but everything is still locked," Stan said.

"We need her alive. She is in on the experiments and everything that is happening tonight," Scully said.

"I found this key in the locker, it's the dining hall," Mulder said.

"We can go through the dining hall next door to the Infirmary," Stan said.

"All right, well, let's go get her and then come back here," Mulder said leading the other two.

They walked next door to the ground hall dining room.

They opened the dining hall. It was completely dark.

"Dark is not a good thing," Scully said.

"Yeah, I know; breeding ground," Mulder said considering the situation.

"Well, let's just keep the flashlights on and our guns out," Scully said turning on her flashlight.

"Really wish it was morning," Stan complained.

The three entered the dining hall.

"So, where is the Infirmary?" Mulder whispered to Stan.

"Upstairs," he said.

Mulder nodded and made his way into the main dining room.

Stan led them up to the Infirmary. It was locked.

Scully knocked.

"Hello, Ms. Wickson!" Scully called.

"I'm not opening the door until all the lights are on," the nurse called.

"So there might be monsters out here, and she is going to leave us out here with them," Stan muttered to Mulder.

The three moved away from the door, knowing they couldn't fight her on it.

"Well, we could blast the door knob off," Stan suggested.

"No, she's scared, and that also means that there must be something in here that she's scared of," Scully said looking around the dinning room.

"Well, let's not wait for it to come back. Let's find a way to get these lights on," Mulder said, "Where's the fuse box?" he asked Stan.

"Downstairs," Stan said.

"Let's go," Mulder said.

"I'll stay up here, see if I can get Ms. Wickson to open the door in case the lights can't be turned back on," Scully said, "And make sure that whatever frightened her doesn't get her,"

"Are you sure?" Mulder asked not liking the idea of them separating.

"Yeah, its fine. You two will only be downstairs," Scully assured.

Mulder nodded and he and Stan walked downstairs.

They found the fuse box and saw that some of the fuses had been torn out.

"Great," Mulder muttered.

"We can try to connect the wires together and see if that works," Stan suggested.

"Maybe, but it seems that the missing fuses are needed," Mulder said, "Where could there be some?"

"Upstairs; Utility cupboard," Stan said simply.

Mulder looked at him annoyed, "Well, let's go back up," he said, but then they heard shots fired.

Stan and Mulder looked at each other alarmed.

"Scully!" Mulder said and both ran back upstairs.

When they reached the top, they saw Scully firing at one of the monsters that was all arm and many teeth.

Mulder and Stan aimed and started firing at it.

Finally it died. They heard the nurse screaming from the infirmary.

"She's fine, just scared," Scully said breathing heavily.

"Are you all right?" Mulder asked walking over to her.

"Yeah, just surprised, and she says that nothing is in there with her, and that's how she wants it to stay until the lights are on," Scully said.

"Well, we need some fuses to fix the fuse box; something tore at it," Mulder said.

Stan walked over to a utility cupboard.

"I've got the fuses," he said holding a box.

"Coming with us?" Mulder asked Scully.

"Yeah, this time; she's fine behind that door," Scully said.

Downstairs, Mulder had fixed the fuse box and the lights had turned back on.

"Good, that will keep the monsters at bay, and now Ms. Wickson can open the door," Mulder said.

They headed back upstairs to the Infirmary door.

Scully knocked softly. They heard the lock click and someone walk away from the door.

Mulder, Scully, and Stan entered the Infirmary.

Ms. Wickson had moved over to sit in a chair and was babbling to herself.

"Ms. Wickson, we're here searching for Kenny Matthews," Scully said looking worried at the nurse.

"Kenny?" the nurse said looking at them.

"Yes," Stan said.

"Kenny. Oh, another one," Ms. Wickson said nonchalantly.

"Another one? You mean test subject don't you?" Mulder said.

"Kenny?" she said, looking at them as if questioning them.

"Yes, Kenny Matthews, Ms Wickson, he went missing a while ago," Scully answered her.

"Herbert," Ms. Wickson said speaking softly to herself now.

"So it is Herbert doing all this. Why?" Mulder asked.

"Herbert, he never let them out before," she said to herself, "Its Leonard," the nurse said.

"No, it can't be he's dead, Ms. Wickson. He's been dead for a long time," Scully said looking at her concerned, "She's not hearing us, she's going into shock," she said looking at Mulder.

"He wants to get out. There's no way to stop him, he's just too strong," Ms. Wickson said speaking directly to Mulder.

Mulder looked at her confused, "Who are you talking about; Herbert?" Mulder asked.

"He want's to get out, there's no way to stop him, he's just too strong." Ms. Wickson repeated.

Mulder knelt next to her, looking into the nurse's face sadly, "Oh, she's just not going to be any help to us."

The nurse kept repeating her last sentence, giving no acknowledgement that she even realized that he was there anymore.


	9. Chapter eight

**Chapter eight **

They left the nurse to be lost in her own psychosis and began to look through the office for anything useful.

"Hey, I found a letter. It's from Herbert to Ms. Wickson," Mulder said looking through the nurses desk, "It's dated a few weeks ago, when Kenny went missing; _Elisabeth, you were not there, so I am leaving you this message. I hope it will be sufficiently clear. This morning I surprised Mr. W. coming out of the amphitheater. I suspect it was he who left the locked chamber open last night. That idiot is putting everybody in danger. You know that the current instability means that we cannot take the least risk. We must do something. Try to engage him in conversation today; you may be able to learn more. Herbert_."

"Do you think Mr. W, is Walden?" Scully asked.

"Pretty sure," Mulder said.

"Hey, she locked the door with this wheel thing, looks like it goes to kind of valve," Stan said removing the object from the door handle.

"I've seen this before," Scully said taking the wheel from him, "In the main building, there is a room on the second floor with two shelves that move with this, but one shelf in the middle was missing this."

"Well, I guess we should head there then," Mulder said and headed for the door.

"What about the videos?" Stan said.

"Right, I forgot about those," Mulder said, "Let's check those out first."

"Should we just leave her here?" Scully asked uncertainly, indicating the nurse.

Mulder looked at her contemplatively. The nurse was still in her own world babbling about Leonard and Herbert.

"We'll have to. She is no use to us, and we can't drag her around; she is safer here." Mulder said.

"You're right," Scully said and pocketed the wheel.

Mulder, Scully, and Stan left the infirmary and headed back to the janitor's room. They passed by Vick's body, without looking at him, to the back room.

Mulder put the video labeled _Surveillance_ in first.

It split into four screens.

"Mulder, these are labeled the night that Kenny Matthews disappeared," Scully said pointing to the bottom of the screen at the date.

"Yeah and there is someone leaving that building," Mulder said pointing at the left corner of the screen, "Where is that Stan?"

"It's the gym, it's in the east part of the school," Stan explained and then pointed at the bottom right corner of the screen, "That must be the one who lured Kenny out because there goes Kenny, and they both go towards the garden area that's usually locked."

"And look who it is," Mulder said angrily.

"Herbert Friedman," Scully said, "Yes, and a few moments later, look who's the only one coming back out, alone," she said pointing to the left side of the screen as Herbert exited a gate and locked it behind him.

"Where is that door?" Mulder asked Stan.

"I have no idea, I mean Friedman goes through the gardens that I know of, but I've never scene that gate before," Stan said.

"But look, someone is accessing it after Friedman has left, who is it?" Scully said drawing their attention back to the screen.

"I can't really see, but he is the one who set those things loose," Mulder said as they watched the person run back out a few minutes later, being chased by four nearly mutated students.

The video stopped.

"Well, we know that Friedman is really doing this, and so is the nurse, Elisabeth Wickson," Scully said.

"Yeah, but what about Denny Walden?" Mulder said.

"I don't know. He knows a lot and it could have been him letting those things loose," Scully said.

"Maybe. Anyway, let's check out the last video," Mulder said popping in the video of _**SUBJECT 37**_.

The video played fuzzy for a moment. All they saw was a lone person sitting in what looked like a jail cell.

"It's Kenny," Stan said as the video became clearer.

"He's alive," Scully said sounding relieved.

"When was it filmed; is he _still_ alive?" Mulder said.

"It doesn't say," Scully said.

"Well, we have to find him, but it sounds like he is already a test subject," Mulder said taking out the tape and looking at the label.

"Thirty-seven, but only twenty-five went missing, including Kenny?" Scully said confused.

"I know, but only Herbert can answer our questions now and we have no idea where he went," Mulder said, "Let's just go to that room you talked about," he said.

The three walked back to the main building. They opened the door and cautiously looked in before fully entering it.

"Well, at least we know what that huge noise was," Scully said.

The whole of the second floor had collapsed.

"Well, it's not like we needed anything up there," Stan said.

"Didn't you say that the room was on the _second_ floor?" Mulder asked turning to Scully.

"Yeah, but we can go this way," Scully said indicating a door to their left.

The three walked up the stairs and ended up in the teacher's lounge.

"Good thing I unlocked all the doors," she said.

"Yeah, really," Mulder said following her to a set of stairs.

Scully then led them to the room with the shelves.

Mulder attached the wheel to the shelf and moved it to the left. Behind it was a door.

They walked into the uncovered room. It was just a small storage closet.

Scully searched through the shelves.

"I found a couple of files," Scully said showing them to Mulder, "It's a work order and floor plan of the school."

Mulder took the papers.

"_Issued by: Cabinet MAC SCHMIND. Official works acceptance Document: Project No. receiving the public: Private high school. FINANCIERS: Mr. Leonard Friedman, Mr. Herbert Friedman. PRIME CONTRACTOR: MAC SCHMIND Associates_

_ARCHITECT: Richard MAC SCHMIND. Date of acceptance of the works: October 1899. Date works commenced: January 1902. Description of the service: Function: High School. Set of a number of buildings consisting of: a main building with classrooms, administrative rooms, a library, a gymnasium, a dormitory, a double dining hall, a theater, a sick bay and different practical work rooms," _Mulder read_._

"So how come these aren't mention?" Scully said, handing Mulder many pictures of what seemed to be basements.

"If he doesn't have those on record, then that must be where he conducts his '_research_'," Mulder said.

"Then we need to find those basements," Scully said.

Mulder nodded, and looked back at the shelves. He noticed a round canister under some papers.

"What's this? It looks a bit out of place," Mulder said picking up the canister and opening it. It was a movie reel.

"What is it?" Stan asked.

"Have no idea, need a movie projector to see it, but it's labeled, **ARCHIVE 23**," Mulder said.

"Well, in the amphitheater, there's a movie projector," Stan said.

"Lead the way then Stan," Mulder said.

They walked back out into the Teacher's lounge and were surprised to see Denny Walden.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Mulder said angrily as he approached the man.

Walden was at one of the tables just looking through some of the files. He didn't look too surprised to see them.

"I'm looking for Friedman," Walden said casually.

"We already saw him. He's disappeared again," Scully said.

"Where did you see him?" Walden asked sharply.

"He was in the library, but now we don't know where he is," Stan said.

"I _need_ to find him," Walden said with urgency.

"Why? Need to get your stories straight?" Scully accused harshly.

He didn't react to the comment, but looked at Scully darkly, "You find your student, Kenny?"

"No, but we have an idea of where he may be," Mulder said, "Want to help? It may help your case once this nightmare is over,"

"No. I have other matters to take care of. I really need to find Friedman," Walden said carelessly, but scrutinized them, "But do tell, where do you think Kenny might be?"

"Well, we know that this school seems to be mostly basements so…you get the picture," Mulder said snidely.

Walden nodded, unperturbed, "Yes, well, I need to be going; good luck with finding Kenny then," he said insincerely.

He waved to them and walked down the stairs.

"I'd make him come with us, but I might _accidentally_ let one of those things have him," Scully muttered darkly.

"It'd be no accident with me," Mulder said peeved, "He _knows _Friedman's doing all this but…he also seems to be out of the loop."

"I know; why does he have to _search_ for Herbert and why was the nurse supposed to talk to him?" Scully said.

"Well Herbert had insinuated in the letter that Walden was getting careless, maybe Herbert is getting rid of him," Mulder said.

"Maybe these monsters were released to clean up the failure of the research," Scully suggested, "Maybe Herbert is waiting for the sun to come up and kill the test subjects,"

"He might be and if he is we need to move fast and find Kenny, we need to find the basements," Mulder said.

"Ever see the basements?" Scully asked Stan.

He shrugged, "No, I really didn't know the school had any."

"Hey, Scully let me see the letter from Herbert to the nurse," Mulder said suddenly.

Scully looked at Mulder curiously, but took the letter out from Stan's backpack and handed it to Mulder.

"I remember the amphitheater being mentioned," Mulder said as he skimmed the letter quickly, "Ah, here. Herbert mentioned seeing Walden coming out of the Amphitheater,"

"So you think the entrance might be there?" Scully asked.

"Yeah, besides we need to go there to see the reel," Mulder said.

"Yes, but won't it be locked," Scully said a little hesitant.

Mulder groaned, "Of course it would be."

"We need to find the key," Stan said.

Scully nodded and then looked at the table that Walden was at when they came in. She walked over and shifted some of the files she had seen earlier.

Put in a folder was a key. Scully picked it up.

She showed it to Mulder and Stan, "What do you think he means by it?" she asked.

Mulder took it from her, surprised, "Well, maybe he knows that Friedman is trying to eliminate him and he wants us to stop him, or we've become a hindrance to the research and he wants to stop us."

"It could be a trap, but either way, we need to go down to the basements," Scully said.

"I agree, we just need to be on guard," Mulder said.

Stan and Scully nodded.

"So Stan, lead us to the Amphitheater," Mulder said.

Stan exited the building with Mulder and Scully following him.

The amphitheater was located in the southeast part of the school.

The arrived in front of the building and Mulder unlocked it with the key Walden had given them.

They entered into the entrance hall. The walls were lined with portraits and pictures of staff and students standing with Herbert Friedman.

Stan stopped and looked at one of the older pictures.

"I never noticed it until now, but Friedman is in every one of these pictures since the school opened in nineteen-oh-two," Stan said.

Scully looked at the dates and saw that Stan was right, "To date, it still puts Herbert to be about one-hundred and fifty or older, but that's impossible."

"Maybe," Mulder said coming up to stand with her, "Or maybe he, Walden, and Ms. Wickson are the only ones who were successful with being infected with the Mortifilia; they achieved immortality," he said seriously.

"Mulder…" Scully said wearily.

"You know that it has to be a possibility, with all the evidence, the dates, the _very_ aged parchment of the letters that they wrote to each other," Mulder said pressed.

"We don't even know that the Mortifilia even exists," Scully said, "Let's just find Kenny and deal with Herbert later."

Mulder nodded, knowing it wouldn't be wise to keep arguing with her. He was used to this side of her by now.

The three moved into the auditorium and started searching.

"Well, Mulder, I see nothing that indicates an entrance to the basements," Scully said.

"Me neither," Stan said.

Mulder looked around the auditorium.

"There has to be," he said.

"Well, let's not let this be a waste; let's look at the reel," Scully suggested.

Mulder nodded and Stan led them up to the projection room.

Mulder set up the film and started it.

It was in black and white, and silent.

The film started with a close up of some mutated parasite and then to a person tied to a chair.

"Oh my god," Scully gasped, her hand over her mouth, "It's a person before they change."

They were seeing a person tied to a chair, struggling against the ties in a semi-dark room.

After a moment, the person struggled harder, but was then enveloped by a dark mist. The scene then changed to a young, normal looking man in a lab setting.

"It's Herbert," Mulder said awed.

"I don't think so," Scully said uncertainly as they watched the man inject himself with something.

The film then changed to someone sitting hunched over in the shadows. The person then moved in front of the camera.

"Oh god, what happened to him?!" Stan jumped, as the imaged of a mutated man looked closer into the camera.

"That must have been Leonard," Scully said awed.

"What was wrong with his face?" Mulder asked, "It was all scarred up."

Scully shook her head, "I think that he didn't take to the Mortifilia research."

"He was a failed subject…but how when the other's succeeded?" Mulder said.

"Mulder, we still don't know that's true; that they really are past one hundred years old," Scully chastised.

"Fine, but either way, it seems that's why Leonard killed himself," Mulder said, slightly frustrated.

Scully looked at him curiously, "What do you mean?"

"Well, you read that article. He was a good flier, but somehow he lost control and crashed. I don't believe it, but I wonder why he took Herbert with him that day though," Mulder said.

"Maybe Herbert didn't know what he was planning, or it really was an accident," Scully shrugged.

"Or it never really happened," Mulder said, "Whatever happened, right now there are too many questions that need to be answered, we need to find Kenny, and Friedman."

"Yeah, well, let's look again for that entrance," Scully said.

They split up this time. The amphitheater was small, but they still hadn't any luck. They met up behind the stage.

There was an elevator that led up to the storage room.

"Too bad this thing doesn't go down," Mulder said looking at the elevator annoyed.

"Well, let's just check upstairs for the heck of it then," Stan said, "There might be clues or something."

Mulder shrugged and stepped onto the elevator. They found that it would only hold two people.

"Hey, I don't want to stay down here by myself," Stan complained.

"Well, two of us have to go, 'cause I sure as hell don't want to be by myself up there," Mulder said to Scully.

"You go, and take him then," she said a little annoyed.

Stan stepped onto the elevator with Mulder.

Mulder pushed the button and the elevator rose.

Scully watched them for a moment before she saw that in the elevator shaft was a ladder that led down.

"Mulder!" she called.

Instead of Mulder answering her, she heard both men yell, and then something screech and then shots being fired.

She panicked. Scully had no way to get to them and she didn't want to call the elevator and leave them up there with what ever they were now fighting.

After a moment, it became quiet.

Scully was very worried.

"Mulder? Stan?" she called again.

The elevator started down.

Mulder and Stan were pressed against the back wall of the elevator, breathing hard.

"What happened? Scully asked as she rushed to their side.

"Monster…big blob thing," Stan said choked out, shaking.

Mulder nodded his agreement, "I'm really getting tired of this place."

"Sorry, but one good thing came from it," Scully said.

Mulder gave her a dry look, "Explain."

"I found the basement," she said, "It's in the elevator shaft."

"So we have to put the elevator back up?" Mulder said annoyed, "But how would I get back down?"

"There's a ladder," Stan pointed out behind some boxes.

Scully stepped back from the elevator and Mulder went up again, without Stan.

Scully and Stan moved some of the boxes so that Mulder could come back down.

Mulder climbed down ladder and looked at the elevator shaft.

"How could this go unnoticed?" Mulder asked.

"Probably because no one but a teacher is allowed to use the elevator," Stan said.

Scully locked the safety on the elevator once it was up and stopped.

Mulder nodded, "Okay, well, let's head down then," he said, "Ladies first," he offered to Scully.

Scully only shrugged and started first on the ladder. Stan went next.

Mulder started his decent, but was startled when the elevator made a loud creaking noise. He didn't like how it sounded so he moved a bit faster. Nearing the bottom, he saw that the elevator moved a bit and was creaking more loudly.

Mulder made it to the bottom and rushed from the elevator shaft just as the elevator cable snapped and the elevator came crashing down.

The three looked at the ruins in amazement.

"Well, guess it was a good thing I went first," Scully said lightly.

Mulder glared at her, but asked, "How do we get back up then?"

Scully contemplated it, "I really don't know, but there has to be another exit."

"Hopefully; where are we?" Mulder said as he looked at the room.

"Boiler room it seems," Stan said.

"Well, we should start searching for an exit, or Kenny," Scully said walking over to the only door in the room.

Mulder and Stan nodded and followed her.


	10. Chapter nine

**Chapter nine **

Scully tuned a valve on the heavy steel door to open it.

"It's strange to have such a heavy door for just a basement," Mulder said examining the door.

"Well, this is where we _assume _that Friedman is conducting his research," Scully said.

"Right," Mulder agreed.

They stepped out into a dark and nearly destroyed corridor.

Parts of the hallway had collapsed and some of the walls had been destroyed.

"I assume it was from whatever collapsed the main part of the school," Mulder said.

"Yeah, I still have no idea of what could have done that," Scully said.

"Earthquake," Mulder suggested.

"I don't think Pennsylvania gets those too often." Scully said.

They continued walking down the corridor. As they moved forward there was no lights at all, and the end of the hall was completely collapsed and impassable.

The only way that they could go was though another heavy steel door to their left.

They ended up in another hallway that went left and right. It was in the same state as the previous area, except this hall had red lights to give some illumination and tree roots were breaking through and growing out of the concrete walls.

"That is so strange," Scully said looking at the tree's roots.

"It seems to be coming from _within_ the school," Mulder said examining them as well.

"But how?" Scully asked.

"I don't know," Mulder said staring intently at the roots, "But you want to know something weird?"

Scully looked at him, "What?"

"I think these roots are _alive_," Mulder said and seemed to be trying to decide if he wanted to touch the root or not.

Scully took a closer look and saw that the root seemed to be pulsating, like a heartbeat, and moving ever so slightly.

"That can't be," Scully said, "Trees don't move."

"Yeah, well, you tell that to this one," Mulder said.

"Come on, let's just find away to get out of," Stan said uneasily.

"Yeah, I really don't want to know if this thing _knows_ we're here," Mulder said and looked to the left and right of the hall, "Which way should be go?"

"We could try right," Stan suggested.

Mulder, Scully, and Stan started walking towards the right and came to a heavy steel door.

It was another hall, destroyed with roots, but completely lit with red lights.

"This is really getting annoying," Stan complained, "I can't see well. Why isn't there any regular light?"

"I'm assuming Herbert doesn't want light down here since this is where he must keep his test subjects," Mulder said.

"Makes sense since light seems to mutate the person," Stan agreed.

"Mulder," Scully said suddenly and grasping arm.

He looked at her surprised. She then pointed to their right.

Mulder saw that another one of the students was leaning against the wall. He didn't look so well.

Stan raised his gun and took aim. Mulder stopped him.

"He'll change," Stan said.

"He hasn't yet," Mulder said, "Hey," he called.

The kid looked at them startled, but didn't move.

"Leave me alone," he snapped.

"Where's Herbert Friedman?" Scully asked.

"Probably taking care of one of the others," the student said bitterly.

"Is a Kenny Matthews down here?" Mulder asked, walking a bit closer to the boy.

The boy moved back from him.

"Really, I just want to be left alone," he said, "I feel it, it's over," he moaned.

"Feel what?" Scully asked.

"I'm not me anymore…you should get away from me," the boy said and moved farther away from them and deeper into a dark corner.

"Come on, there's no way we can help him," Mulder said pulling Scully to follow him.

"Herbert is going to pay for this," Scully said determinedly while she looked at the boy sadly.

They headed down to the left side of the hall, but found the only door there to be locked.

Mulder, Scully, and Stan then backtracked to the previous hall and headed for the left side.

They entered the first room they came upon to their right.

Mulder opened it and they entered a room that housed huge steel cages on wheels and a couple of cells.

"Makes transport easier," Mulder commented as he examined one of the cages.

"Where might he take them?" Scully said as she looked through some of the smaller cages.

"Hey, guys," Stan said looking into one of the cells, "Something's in here."

Mulder and Scully walked over to him, withdrawing their guns.

Inside one of the cells was girl sitting in the corner of her cell. She was crying softly.

"The cell's open, but this cage is blocking it," Stan said.

"Come on, help me move it," Mulder said to Stan.

Mulder and Stan moved the steel cage.

The three walked in on guard, unsure of what to expect. They had drawn their guns.

The girl hadn't moved. She didn't seem to notice that they were even there.

"Miss?" Scully said tentatively.

The girl turned to look at them sharply. The girl was just like all the others. She seemed sickly.

"No light!" she said fearfully, "No light, it hurts!" she cried.

"We don't have light," Mulder assured, "Who are you?"

She paused for a minute, "I-I…I don't remember," she said and looked devastated at that.

"Don't worry," Scully said gently.

The girl glared at Scully, "Don't worry!? How can you say that…he changed and then they took him and he has never come back, I'm next, I know it!" she screamed and stood up to face them.

"Who's they, who'd they take?" Mulder asked.

"The boy I was imprisoned with," she said, then doubled over and cried out, "He took the boy, but he keeps me in darkness, but it doesn't help anymore,"

"Herbert?" Mulder asked.

"I'm changing…please you have to kill me," she cried beseechingly.

Mulder and Scully exchanged looks. They knew they couldn't, even if it was the right thing to do.

"We…we can't." Mulder said sounding apologetic.

"You have to," she begged, "You have to or I-I'll…I'll kill her," she said pointing at Scully, who backed up a bit.

"You won't," Mulder said, but furtively fingered the trigger of his gun.

The girl backed up into her corner again, crying out in anguish.

"We should go," Scully said turning to leave, pulling a stunned Stan with her.

The girl looked up sharply, "No, please, you can't leave me to become one of those things!" she screamed and then lunged for Scully and caught Scully by her hair, ready to bite her.

Mulder was quick to aim his gun, and with a slight regret, he fired at the girl.

The young girl fell to the ground, dead.

Scully rubbed the back of her head, staring at the girl lying on the floor.

"Are you all right?" Mulder asked Scully, coming over to her.

She only nodded. Mulder stared at the young girl. He knew that she'd attack, and he knew that he'd have to kill her. The girl was desperate to die. She didn't want to meet the same fate as all the other monsters that were running loose now.

Mulder solemnly holstered his gun.

Scully touched his arm, "You didn't have a choice Mulder," she said softly.

"Neither did she," Mulder said angrily, "Let's just find Herbert."

Scully nodded. Stan had been looking around the cell.

"Hey, I found this," Stan said handing a piece of torn paper to Scully.

"_If you are reading this letter, you have probably been, as I was, locked up by Herbert Friedman… I can't get out but you might be luckier than me. I am afraid I will soon be used as a guinea pig, like all the other students...If you do get out; I have put together, in a safe hidden in the dormitory, all the proof necessary to bring down Friedman. Find the…" _Scully read.

"Find the what?" Mulder asked.

Scully shrugged, "I don't know, it just ends there, but what dormitory? I didn't think students stayed on campus."

"They don't anymore. The building is condemned now," Stan said, "It's in the east part of the school, by the area that we saw Kenny in on the tape. The gate leading there is padlocked and so is the building itself," he explained.

"Well we have to look there. Let's get out of here and find a way to check it out," Mulder said.

"Still need to find away out of this basement," Scully pointed out.

"I haven't forgotten," Mulder said casually as he led them back into the hallway.

Scully looked up and down the corridor, "Well, we've been about everywhere that was open," she said.

"Well, let's continue to the right then," Mulder said and started walking.

They came to the end of the hall and to the last door.

Three entered into the room. It seemed to be a laboratory.

There was an examining table in the middle and a huge heavy steel door on the side that led into the room where the girl had been.

Scully walked over to the examination table.

"Oh god, what did this used to be?" she said looking at half of a body that was left on the table. It wasn't human.

"Well, I don't want to run into a live one is all I can say," Mulder said looking disgusted at the thing.

He proceeded to look around the lab.

"It seems like someone was quick to get out of here," Stan said as he noticed all the broken glass and scattered papers around the floor.

"Either something or someone made them leave fast," Scully said, "At the moment, I'm not sure which."

"Well, where did they go? We didn't see anyone run by us or anyone else alive in the school," Mulder said, looking under the desks and touching the walls.

"What are you thinking; secret room, or escape route?" Scully asked watching Mulder.

"Always," Mulder said coming across a lever in the wall.

He studied it.

"Find something?" Stan asked.

"Maybe," he said, and then looked at the steel doors, "Now this lever either opens those doors or another part of the lab."

"Only one way to find out," Scully said.

Mulder nodded and pulled the lever down.

The three were startled when a bookcase by the far wall started to move. They walked over to it and it revealed a ladder that descended.

"I think we may have found our way out," Mulder said pleased.

"Great," Stan said happily.

"Actually, I want to check out this lab, maybe I can find some answers, and evidence," Scully said.

Mulder nodded, "Good idea, but I really want to check out what's down there," he said.

"Well go on and I'll catch up," Scully said.

"All right, be quick though," Mulder said.

"I will," Scully said.

Mulder started down the ladder. He looked at Stan.

Stan was a bit hesitant, "Should we really leave you alone?" he asked Scully.

"It's fine, I'll just be a minute," she promised.

Stan nodded and followed Mulder down.

X x X

The lower ground was another hallway. It only went one way to the right and had one door.

"Okay, so now were lower," Mulder said, but looked at the door.

"This is the only door down here, maybe this is where Kenny is," Stan said.

"It has to be," Mulder said and reached for the valve on the steel door and turned it.

"Shouldn't we wait for Agent Scully?" Stan asked.

"We're not going far, just a quick peek," Mulder said, "She'll find us," he assured.

Stan nodded.

They opened the door and stepped into a dark room that lit with regular light when someone entered. Mulder and Stan's eyes took a moment to adjust.

Stan and Mulder saw more cells. In those cells were two people squinting against the light.

"Agent Mulder?" said a female voice; she had covered herself with her hoody.

"Shannon?" Mulder asked surprised as he recognized the voice and rushed over to her.

She lowered her hood. Shannon had some bruises and cuts on her face.

"Yeah. I found Kenny," she said sheepishly, pointing to the other person in the cell across form her.

"Oh Shannon, what are you doing here?" Mulder said disappointed, as he looked for a way to open the cell.

"Explain it later Shannon," Kenny said urgently, "Friedman will be back soon."

"Right, please get us out of here," Shannon said.

Mulder nodded. He looked at the locks. They were electronic.

"How?" Stan asked as he searched too.

"Over there is a release button," Kenny said pointing at the wall by the door.

Mulder saw the panel, but was surprised when the door was opening. He was expecting Scully. Instead, it was Friedman.

"Friedman!" Mulder cried.

Stan and he rushed towards Herbert.

Friedman threw in a small canister. It landed of the floor and started to leak gas.

Friedman shut the door and locked it.

Mulder banged on it and tried to open it, "Friedman!" he called again.

Stan and Mulder covered their noses as they saw that the gas was filling the room fast.

Kenny and Shannon had already lost consciousness.

Stan had tried with Mulder to open the door.

Stan had been holding his breath, but couldn't hold out much longer. He then inhaled deeply. After a moment, he passed out.

Mulder tried to hold out longer. He needed to get out and get to Scully. He didn't know what Friedman would do to her if he found her. Mulder banged on the door, hoping Scully would hear it. After a moment, he gave up; defeated.

His lungs were burning now with the lack of oxygen. He knew that he couldn't avoid the gas forever and he didn't think Scully would find him in time this time. He inhaled deeply and a few seconds later, he slipped into darkness.


	11. Chapter ten

**Chapter ten **

Scully had been looking around the lab. She found a few files, but she didn't know what they meant. It was of the experiments, but she didn't know how to rate what was being written without having the full data.

Some of it would require further analysis and a long discussion with Herbert Friedman.

Scully found a desk drawer that was locked. She figured that it must hold something important so she pried it open.

Inside was a file labeled **Leonard: DEVELOPMENT**.

Scully opened it and inside was a detailed report of the mutations caused by the Mortifilia done on Leonard. There were also hand drawn pictures of the measurements of what was happening to Leonard's body.

Scully began to read the file, _"__**January 18, 1903**__, Leonard seems to have handled the treatment reasonably well. No special symptoms. _

_**March 24, 1903**__, After a few days his skin is covered with melanoma. The tumors are not metastasizing very much, but their large number is causing a worsening in his general condition._

_**March 30, 1903**__, The hypersensitivity of the skin to UV radiation and the first lesions resulting from this are similar to Xeroderma Pigmentosum, an inherited illness. This illness is due to a mutation of the gene that protects against skin cancers. But, in theory, this illness is hereditary._

_**April 18, 1903**__, Henceforth, Leonard will protect himself from the sun, but the damage is done. The light rays have caused an acute reaction in the Mortifilia gene inserted into his system. We did not foresee this, because our previous guinea pigs remained in their cages. At present, the entire surface of Leonard's skin is suffering profound mutations._

_**May 25, 1903**__, The mutations appear to have slowed down. They are, however, spectacular, and I ask myself how he can survive in this condition. The wounds have transformed into scabs that look as though they will remain, like the bark of a tree. The damage to his skeleton and his metabolism appear irreversible. His temporal lobes and his upper members are the most affected parts._

_**June 30, 1904**__, His condition has stabilized. His mental condition__concerns me as much as the appearance he has taken on, if human appearance can still be spoken of in his case. The only hope to cure him now is to have new guinea pigs who have suffered in the same way, in order to test a therapy aimed at eradicating the gene and returning the subject to his initial condition._

_**September 24, 1926**__, This research is very long. I will not live long enough to achieve my goal. Unless I inject myself with the treatment and remain in the shadows until the serum is discovered."_

Scully couldn't believe what she had read. So he had achieved immortality, but because of it, Herbert had to remain in shadows all this time.

"Why?" Scully breathed, still looking through the file. By the way it sounded; Leonard had to have died by now.

"_Like the bark of a tree" _jumped out at her from the file and then she remembered Mulder pointing out that the roots seemed to be alive. She remembered the look of Leonard's face on the reel.

"Oh my god, _Leonard is the tree_! He's doing all this with Herbert," Scully said, "He want's to be cured."

Scully closed the file, figuring this was all the evidence she would need. She needed to find Mulder and Stan.

She took the file with her and descended the ladder.

Scully stepped onto the ground. She looked around the hallway. There was only one way to go. She headed right and was about to continue when she noticed a door.

She knew that Mulder and Stan would have already searched this room, but if they found something, they would be waiting to tell her here. Unless they were still in the room. She knew they wouldn't have continued much farther. She decided to check it out just to be safe.

Scully tried to open it, but saw that it was locked. She undid the latch and entered the room.

The room was dark but quickly lit. Scully was startled and blinded a bit. Her eyes adjusted to the brightness and she was surprised to see four people on the floor in locked cells.

Scully rushed in when she realized that it was Mulder, Stan, Shannon, and Kenny.

"Oh my god, Mulder," she said when she reached his cell.

He was lying on the stone floor unconscious.

"Mulder," she said louder, but he didn't respond.

She knew not to panic; she just needed to open the doors. Scully looked around the room. She saw that the doors were electronically locked. She found the release panel by the door.

Scully pressed the button and all the doors opened.

Scully went back to Mulder.

"Mulder," Scully said as she knelt down beside him.

Scully checked for a pulse. She assessed that he was fine. She then went to check on the other three.

Everyone was all right; they were just unconscious.

Kenny was the first to wake. Scully rushed over to him.

"Kenny, are you all right?" Scully asked as she checked him over.

He touched his head, "Yeah, just a bit of a headache," he looked at her, "Who are you?"

"I'm Dana Scully, I'm with the F.B.I," Scully said.

Kenny looked around, "Where's Shannon?" he asked alarmed.

"She's here, she's okay," Scully soothed.

He relaxed a bit, "No she's not."

Scully looked at him curiously, "What do you mean?"

"She and I are infected," Kenny said standing up.

He looked around the room. It was bright and the light was hurting him.

He doubled over in pain.

Scully didn't know what to do for him.

"We've been injected with that stuff Friedman's researching," Kenny said, "It's the light, it hurts."

Scully nodded. She looked around the room and found a long pipe. She knocked out some of the lights.

He nodded his appreciation. With the added darkness, he felt a bit better.

Kenny looked over at Shannon, but then saw Mulder and Stan.

"Oh no," he groaned, "They've been infected."

Scully looked at him startled, "What!?"

"Friedman came back when they found us; he knocked us out with some kind of gas," Kenny said, "He would have infected them."

Scully and Kenny walked over to check Mulder and Stan. Kenny looked over Stan.

"Check his arm," Kenny said to Scully.

Scully knelt by Mulder again. She was hesitant. She didn't want to know and she didn't want to believe, especially with what she read about Leonard and seeing all the other test subjects.

Scully lifted Mulder's right sleeve and saw that his arm was clean. She was almost relived. She prayed that the other arm would be clean.

She slowly lifted his left arm sleeve. Her heart sank at seeing the bruising of an unmistakable injection site.

"No, Mulder," she said pained.

"Stan's been infected, we need to keep them in darkness," Kenny said, "I've been exposed to some light, so has Shannon,"

"Wh-what do we do, how do we help them and you?" Scully asked feeling overwhelmed.

"Light causes the transformation and mutations, we need to limit their light exposure," Kenny said, "But by morning…the sunlight won't mutate us, it will kill us."

Scully nodded as she remembered what Denny had told her and Mulder about the monsters, and of the boy that died in the classroom earlier.

"Isn't there a way…?" Scully didn't even know what she was supposed to ask.

She hadn't read anything about an antidote being accomplished.

"The nurse, or Walden, have you found either of them?" Kenny asked.

"Wickson is in the Infirmary, and Walden, well we run into him once in a while," Scully said, "He's looking for Herbert."

"Herbert's trying to avoid him," Kenny said, "I have no idea why, but we have to get to Wickson, she might be able to help us."

"She's working with them. What makes you thinks she will?" Scully said.

"She's afraid of Leonard and Herbert, I heard them talking the last few weeks," Kenny said, "But first we have to wake them, I don't really want to leave them here," he said indicating the Stan, Mulder, and Shannon.

Scully and Kenny set to waking them.

Mulder woke groggy.

"Scully?" Mulder asked, trying to focus on her face.

"Yeah," Scully said.

He then sat up quickly, "The other's…Herbert!"

"Herbert's not here and the others are fine, relatively speaking," Scully said, "Although I'm surprised to see Shannon."

"Yeah, I was too, she never got to tell us how she ended up here," Mulder said standing up.

Scully supported him until he got his bearings.

"You didn't run into Friedman did you?" Mulder asked worriedly.

_Always thinking of me_, she thought sadly, "No, I didn't, I just found you four," she said, trying to act unruffled.

"I'm glad, I was afraid that he would…" Mulder said looking at her searchingly, "You've got that look on your face. What's wrong?"

"What look?" Scully asked trying to look impassive.

"The look that says you know something I don't, but something you don't want to know yourself," Mulder said suspiciously.

Scully sighed, "I don't know how long you were out, but…," she said and took his left arm and raised the sleeve.

He looked at his arm appalled.

"That son-of-a-bitch," Mulder said angrily, "Stan too?"

"Yes," she said, "We'll fix this, Mulder," Scully said firmly.

Mulder nodded, "So did you find anything in the lab?"

"Yes. Leonard's alive, and he's the tree," Scully said.

Mulder stared at her blankly for a moment.

"Now, I've heard weirder things before, but can you run that by me one more time," Mulder said incredulously.

"You know the roots you saw coming out of the walls, well it's Leonard, he's a tree apparently," Scully said seriously.

"Well, this just gets stranger and stranger," Mulder said in disbelief.

"I know. So you ready to get moving?" Scully said.

Mulder started patting himself, "Yeah, as soon as I find my weapon," he said and looked around his cell.

"It's probably in that iron cabinet near the door," Kenny said, "Friedman puts everything that comes with a subject in there."

Mulder nodded and walked over to it.

Scully followed him.

"It's locked," Scully stated as she touched the padlock and chain.

Mulder glared at her a bit, "I can see that, now, how can I open it," he said looking around the ground.

He picked up a bolt cutter from inside a toolbox.

"I think this can work," he said as he cut the padlock off the chain.

Mulder opened the cabinet and took out his shotgun and Stan's pistol.

He checked both of the guns; they were still loaded.

"Where's Stan?" Mulder asked looking around the cells, "And why is it so dark?"

"Stan's in the last cell, and I broke some of the lights," Scully answered, "The lights were hurting Kenny, and it was best to limit yours and Stan's exposure too,"

"Sure," Mulder said looking up when Kenny, Shannon, and Stan walked over to them.

"So should we get going?" Kenny asked.

"Yeah," Mulder said handing Stan back his pistol.

Stan took it and pocketed it. He hadn't said anything yet.

"And I think I found a way into the teacher's dormitories," he said showing Stan the bolt cutter.

Stan nodded his approval.

The five exited the Prison room and walked down the rest of the hall. The corridor ended with a ladder leading up.

They began their climb up the ladder.


	12. Chapter eleven

**Chapter eleven **

They climbed out of the undergrounds and ended up in a stoned courtyard.

The group sat on the concrete benches.

The group was particularly quiet.

Scully watched them. Shannon was talking quietly with Kenny. Stan was just staring at the ground, not acknowledging anyone.

She and Mulder were just trying to avoid conversation.

Scully didn't want to think about what was going to happen to Mulder or of what would need to be done in case they failed. She was still worrying over the fact that she still hadn't read anything about an accomplished antidote. That was what these tests were supposed to do, to refine the Mortifilia.

She sighed and Mulder looked at her. She didn't elaborate.

"So Shannon, you didn't tell us how you ended up here," Stan said suddenly.

Shannon looked over at him, "Oh, right, well, I knew that Agent's Mulder and Scully were coming to talk to Friedman. I wasn't sure of how that was going to go. So I decided to just finally face my fears about coming here at night; I needed to find Kenny," she said, "So I came to the school around nine. I broke the front door window to open the door and came in, and I was about to start looking around when the ground began to shake. I heard something yelling, then the entire second floor caved in and I was knocked out, by a rock or something."

"Friedman brought her back to the cell, and injected her with that stuff," Kenny said angrily, "I'm going to kill him!"

"No, first he's going to cure us, then we'll kill him," Mulder said seriously.

"So did you find anything, Agent Scully?" Stan asked her.

"Um, yeah, sort of," Scully said, "Leonard is alive and is a tree."

"The dead brother is a tree?" Stan said incredulously.

"I know how it sounds, believe me, but I found a file about Leonard as he mutated. Herbert was watching him, now Herbert continues with the research to possibly cure his brother," Scully said.

"So Herbert, Wickson, and Walden are in on it," Stan said.

"Walden can't be," Kenny said, "Friedman's been avoiding him for a while now."

"Yeah, I still can't quite figure him out," Mulder said looking at Scully, "Is he helping us, or hindering us?"

"You mean did he know that Herbert would infect you since he did give us the key that would lead us to the basement?" Scully said.

"Yeah," Mulder said then became thoughtful, "Scully, I think…I think Walden might actually be infected too."

She looked at him curiously, "What makes you say that?"

"When we first met him he was rubbing his arm, but I can't recall him actually hurting himself after he broke that window," Mulder said, "But does that make him another test subject?"

"It's possible. Maybe that's why he's so dogged to find Herbert; he wants to be cured," Scully said, "But what did he do to get infected?"

Mulder shrugged, "Well we can't know until we find him or Herbert."

"Maybe Wickson knows. We have to go talk to her," Kenny said, "We have to get out of here first. Where exactly are we?"

"I have no idea," Shannon said as she started walking toward a large gate to their right, "But this way is electronically locked; we need a numbered password."

Scully touched Mulder's arm, "Mulder, isn't that the door that Herbert was coming out of on the video?" she said looking at the gate.

"It is. So he must be hiding back there," Mulder said getting up and walking over to the gate.

He shook it, trying to get it to move, "Where is that password?" he muttered.

"There's a gate over here locked with a chain and padlock, it leads into the main courtyard," Kenny called from the far left, "Hey Agent Mulder, let me use those bolt cutters."

"Sure," Mulder said handing them Shannon.

She took the cutters over to Kenny.

Stan walked over to Scully.

"Are you all right Agent Scully…I mean did Friedman get you too?" Stan asked awkwardly.

"No. I found you four. I'm all right," Scully said feeling sorry for him.

"I'm glad. Ones enough," Stan said firmly.

He sighed and headed over to Kenny and Shannon.

"What do you think he meant by that?" Scully asked intrigued.

"Because if something happens, we need one person to survive this and make sure that Herbert Friedman pays for this," Mulder said grimly.

Scully looked at him sharply, "We're _all_ going to survive this, Mulder," she stated firmly.

"No. You don't know that, and if it does come to that, you have to make sure that _you_ get him," Mulder said seriously, "You're the only one not infected, _you_ won't turn into one of those things or be killed by morning light."

Scully looked at him, "Mulder, we'll find a way to fix this, it'll be all right."

"And if it isn't, if I turn into one of those things…Scully I want you to promise me that you will do what's necessary," Mulder said looking into her eyes searchingly.

"I…I can't," she said her voice wavering.

"You have to," Mulder stated, "Herbert needs to be stopped and it has to be us, or you that does it."

She sighed and turned away from him, "Let's keep moving, we're wasting time," she said flatly, walking over to the others.

Mulder nodded resignedly. She didn't need to verbally agree, for him to know that she did. He knew that she would do the right thing. He followed her.

Kenny had opened the gate.

The five walked into the main courtyard and headed for the Infirmary.

"Hey, Kenny," Mulder said.

"Yeah?" Kenny said.

"How is it that you haven't mutated or changed?" Mulder asked.

"Herbert didn't mess with me often. He was busy with another test subject," Kenny said, "He acted happy, so I think he was nearing a success of something."

"A cure?" Stan asked.

"I don't know. Maybe," Kenny shrugged, "I don't know what he was really working on."

"He wants to cure Leonard, so it has to be an antidote," Mulder said.

"Does it?" Scully said.

Mulder looked at her, "What else could he want?"

"I think he just wants to reverse the side affects. I think he wants a more stable version of the Mortifilia," Scully explained, "At least that's what I gathered from his notes and of the testing of Leonard."

"So he's still striving for immortality?" Mulder said disbelieving, "I don't want to be immortal, I just want this stuff out of my body." he finished angrily.

Scully nodded.

They made it to the infirmary. They didn't see the nurse.

"Did she leave?" Shannon asked looking around the beds.

Scully walked behind the nurse's desk and was startled.

"Oh my god. She's over here," Scully said and she knelt down to the bloodied nurse.

Ms. Wickson was barely conscious. The group came around to Scully and the nurse.

"Ms. Wickson," Scully said trying to rouse the nurse.

She looked at Scully, and then looked at the rest of the group.

"You've been infected," she said remorsefully.

"How do you know that? Who did this to you?" Mulder asked as he knelt closer to the nurse.

"She's lost too much blood," Scully said and got up to find some bandages and other items to help Ms. Wickson.

Ms. Wickson shook her head, "Herbert, you gone to far," she spoke softly to herself, then looked at Mulder, "You must find the antidote," she said firmly.

"An antidote? What are you talking about?" Stan demanded.

Scully came back and tried to attend to the nurse's wounds.

The nurse coughed harshly and winced in pain, "In the basement…the lab…the big door."

"We just came from the basement, there wasn't a big door," Scully said.

"The other entrance," Ms. Wickson said.

"What other entrance?" Mulder asked.

The nurse grabbed Mulder's arm, "Leonard…don't let him go," she said and started to close her eyes.

"Ms. Wickson," Mulder called, trying to keep her awake.

"Forgive us," she uttered and then closed her eyes, her body becoming limp.

"Her injuries were too severe," Scully said sadly, "Who did this to her?"

"Herbert. It had to be him, otherwise how could she know that we were infected," Mulder said getting up and walking away from the nurse.

"But why?" Scully inquired.

"Because he knew that she would tell us about the antidote. She wants this to stop and he wants to complete his research," Mulder said angrily, "Too many are dying for his cause!" he exclaimed.

Scully nodded and stood up, "Well, then we should continue."

"What entrance was she talking about?" Shannon asked.

"I'm assuming the one we saw Herbert exit from in a surveillance video," Stan said to Mulder and Scully, then turned towards Shannon and Kenny at their looks of confusion, "The one that needs a password."

Shannon and Kenny nodded.

"Yes, well, now we need to find a password, but where do we look," Mulder said.

"The dorms," Stan said, "We have the cutters now, so we can access that area."

"All right, let's go," Mulder said and led the group out of the Infirmary.

Scully took one last look at the nurse, Ms. Wickson. Leonard's wife. Herbert's partner in crime. It didn't matter; everyone was expendable to his finding a cure for his brother. She wondered for a moment of what Leonard would think of Herbert after all this. Was immortality really worth it?

Scully sighed heavily and then followed the rest of the group.


	13. Chapter twelve

**Chapter twelve **

Mulder, Scully, Stan, Kenny, and Shannon headed to the east side of the school. They ended up in front of the gate that was locked with chain and padlock.

Kenny cut them off and they walked through the door.

They were in the area that Kenny had been when they saw him on the tape.

"I'm guessing that the gardens are locked again," Stan said indicating the door to the far right.

Kenny walked over to the door and tried to open it, "It is," he said and walked back to the group.

"Wow, Herbert really doesn't want anyone in here," Mulder said as he touched the thick lock and chain on the dormitory building.

"Or is it to keep something in?" Kenny said warily as he tried to look through a window.

"Only one way to find out," Stan said as he tried to cut through the lock.

It took him and Kenny to do it since the chain was so thick and heavy.

They opened the door and the group entered into the building.

They stood in a long and dilapidated corridor. It was very dark, but slight illuminated by the moonlight.

"Well Herbert hasn't had housekeeping here in a while," Mulder said waiting for his eyes to adjust to the darkness, "Really what did Vick do for a living?"

"Be quiet Mulder," Scully said on edge, "I think I hear something."

"I think I hear a _bunch_ of somethings," Shannon said and clung to Stan's arm.

"I think they're in that room," Scully said pointing to a door to their left.

Scully walked towards the door. She could hear whispering and someone moaning in what sounded like pain.

"I think there are people here, quite a few from what I can tell," Scully said looking at Mulder.

"_People,_ as in not going to kill us, or _people,_ as in I should have brought more bullets?" Mulder questioned concerned.

Scully gave him a thoughtful look, "I'm going to go with the latter," she said.

He nodded and he and Stan pulled out their guns.

Kenny gave them an inquiring look, "How come I don't have one?"

Mulder handed over the shotgun and ammo he had picked up from Vick to Kenny and then pulled out his own issued gun. He felt more comfortable with it.

"Can you use it?" Mulder asked Kenny.

"Think so," Kenny said as he checked that it was loaded.

"Just don't kill one of us," Shannon said dryly, "And it'll prove you can use it."

Kenny gave her a sarcastic smile. She only smiled kindly at him.

Scully pulled out her own gun and quietly opened the door.

Inside the room was a bunch of torn up chairs and couches, and damaged tables placed haphazardly around the room. The windows were boarded up because they had been smashed. Broken glass littered the floor and the ceiling seemed ready to cave in. The room seemed completely unlivable.

They cautiously walked a few feet inside.

Mulder suddenly stopped and held the rest back. They looked at him curiously. Mulder then pointed around the room silently.

Around the room were the infected people. They ignored them for the moment. All lost in their world of pain and confusion.

Scully counted at least twelve people.

They were either just staring at the walls blankly or hugging their sides and moaning in pain.

"What do we do?" Stan tried to whisper as soft as possible.

The room was overly quiet, any small noise was noticeable, and they were noticed.

The infected turned to look at them.

The group became nervous, but the infected just went back to ignoring them.

"We should go," Scully said to Mulder.

He nodded and was about to back out of the room with the rest, but he stopped when he noticed when one of the infected, a young girl with dark hair, was still focused on them.

She got up from where she was sitting, at a table, and began to walk slowly towards them.

Stan aimed his gun at her, but Mulder pushed his gun down and shook his head. Stan complied and watched to see what Mulder wanted to do.

The girl walked over to them timidly.

She was very tiny, that Mulder thought that maybe she was still in junior high, or elementary school.

She was sickly looking like a normal infected, but she didn't seem to be in any pain or distress.

The girl stopped a few feet from them.

"Are you the new test subjects?" she asked in a soft voice.

"In a manner of speaking," Mulder answered, "Who are you?"

"Ms. Wickson calls me Olivia," she said, "I assume that's who I am. I've forgotten so long ago."

"The tests make you forget?" Scully asked once it was assessed that Olivia was safe.

"Sometimes. I forget who I am, but never the test," Olivia said, "I wish it were the other way around," she said sadly.

"I'm sorry," Shannon said.

"So all of these are the missing students?" Kenny asked, "I thought there were more, unless they all have changed already."

"There are more. Some are around in the other rooms," Olivia said.

"How many?" Scully asked.

"About thirty-two to forty right now," Olivia answered.

"That's more them twenty-five," Mulder said to Scully.

She nodded, "I know."

"Why does Friedman put you guys here?" Stan asked looking at the appearance of the room, "It's a dump."

Olivia nodded, "I agree, but he puts us here because it protects us from light. As you see there are no lights bulbs in the fixtures and all the windows are boarded up," she said.

The group looked around and saw that she was right.

"And he doesn't care what the dorms look like because we all will die eventually. Whether to failure of the testing or mutating and needing to be killed, or another of us mutating and killing us," Olivia said, "I've seen it all happen. I've been here awhile."

"Why haven't you succumbed to one of the three?" Mulder asked.

"Friedman says I'm resistant. I'm infected and have a chance to mutate, but I don't comply with his testing, so he leaves me here because I don't want to be destroyed," Olivia said, "I may never be normal, but I don't want to die yet."

"He let you have a choice?" Scully asked perplex.

"Yes, because he knows that it's a matter of time before I change. He won't kill me as a human," Olivia explained, "I know it's a matter of time as well. Everyday I feel that I'm changing, the pain and feelings increase, but I'm able to fight it."

"Is everyone here like you?" Shannon asked.

"No. They all will either be picked up for testing or mutate soon," Olivia said.

"Why don't any of you fight back?" Kenny asked, "Why not make Friedman stop?"

"Because we all were fools in the beginning," Olivia said darkly, "The others still are."

"How do you mean?" Scully asked.

"He infected us against our will, but he promised that if he succeeds with his research, he'll be able to cure us," Olivia said, "But I learned that it was a lie, once he succeeds, he'll just kill us."

"How do you know that?" Kenny asked.

"Because I heard him talking with Elisabeth, the nurse," Olivia said, "He means to cure his brother, and then together they will continue their work, but he will scrap the leftovers, us subjects he didn't use or didn't die."

"God, that's horrible," Shannon said horrified.

Olivia nodded, "Its fine. I've come to terms with my fate, as long as I don't change."

"Have you seen anyone else other then the nurse and Friedman around here?" Mulder asked.

"No, only those two. They don't allow anyone else to see us," Olivia answered.

"Do they stay here too?" Scully asked.

"No, I don't know where they stay, but I know they are always on campus because they are infected, and need to stay out of the light so they don't mutate," Olivia said.

"So Friedman only does the testing?" Mulder asked.

"Yes. Elisabeth was hired as a nurse so that she could find test subjects for Friedman, and then she takes care of the rest of us," Olivia said.

"How do you know that?" Shannon asked surprised.

"She talks to me often, and I hold no ill-will towards her for choosing me, I'm infected. No point in being completely angry, besides it increases the infection to take over faster," Olivia shrugged, "So why are you here?"

"We're F.B.I. agents," Mulder said indicating him and Scully, "We got locked in trying to find missing students."

"I was a test subject," Kenny said.

"And we just got caught in the middle," Stan said with Shannon agreeing.

She looked at them sadly, "I'm sorry, are all of you infected?"

"Nearly," Mulder said, "But we did come here for a reason."

"What is it, can I help?" Olivia asked eagerly.

"Possibly," Mulder said, "Do you know of a safe anywhere in this dormitory?"

Olivia became thoughtful.

"Yeah, I have one now. A boy, Alan, I think, he gave me one last week," Olivia said, "He was taken to the labs though," she frowned.

"We know, he's dead apparently," Scully said.

"I figured that. If you leave here, and don't come back after a few hours, you're never coming back," Olivia said, "He's been gone the whole week."

Mulder nodded, "So can you show us the safe? We found a note from him that it could be useful."

"Yes, I can show you," Olivia said pushing past them, "Follow me, but don't talk to anyone."

The group followed her back into the main corridor.

"Alan was different from all of us," Olivia began, speaking to the group, "He was always sneaking out of the dorms to wander the school. He knew that he shouldn't, but he didn't want to let Friedman get away with this."

"I woul-won't either," Kenny said firmly.

Olivia nodded, "He was stronger willed then us. Anyway, he was always finding things. He found the safe first in the attics of the main school and bought it back, and then he started finding reports and papers in the school. He brought those back too and put them in the safe," Olivia said, "He never showed me, he didn't want me to get in trouble in case he was caught."

Olivia took them up to the second floor. They passed more of the infected.

"One night, he had gone out on his nightly walks, he came back after a couple of hours in a frenzy, he was so frightened, he quickly put something away in the safe and then asked me to help him hide it," Olivia said as she entered her room.

She walked over to her bed.

"He told me to take care of it and gave me the combination to it too," Olivia said, tears forming in her eyes, "He then he told me to never give what was in the safe to Friedman no matter what, I was allowed to give it to anyone who wasn't Friedman or Wickson."

She dropped to her knees and crawled under the bed.

Olivia continued talking, "We hid it in the wall," she pulled the wall apart and pulled out a rusted safe and put it on her bed.

"What ever Alan took that night; it must have been important, because a couple of hours after Alan came back, Friedman came yelling at him and then took him for testing," Olivia said, "He never came back, but Friedman, not that you can tell, tore this house apart looking for whatever Alan had put in the safe," she said and set to opening the safe.

It took her a few tries, but she got it to unlock.

"Well, whatever this is, I hope it was worth his life, and that it helps," Olivia said standing up.

"You don't want to know what's in it?" Shannon asked.

"Alan never wanted me to look in it, he said to keep it safe and pass it on," Olivia said sorrowfully, "Besides whatever it is, it can't help me, or the other's; it's too late."

"Thank you, Olivia," Mulder said.

"You're welcome," Olivia said and started for the door, but turned back to them, "Oh, by the way, have you seen Elisabeth, she hasn't been by tonight?"

The group shared a look.

"I'm sorry Olivia, but uh, Elisabeth was killed tonight," Scully said as gently as possible.

"Oh…well it was bound to happen," Olivia said lightly, "Thank you for telling me, bye," she said and left the room.

"God how I am hating this," Shannon said angrily, "She was only a little girl!" she exclaimed.

"She was a freshman," Kenny corrected, "She only looked little,"

"Shut up, you insensitive jerk," Shannon snapped.

"Knock it off!" Mulder said firmly, "What's in the safe?" he asked to Scully.

Scully opened the safe and pulled a journal and pieces of paper. Scully sifted through them.

"Well this is a letter from the Office of Technology of the Congress, it says; _Dear Sirs, Following the conference in Seattle, where your publications and particularly your work entitled "Eternal life is possible" were the subject of much discussions, the experts examined your research...As it was generally accepted that the use of your knowledge cannot be controlled, nor can the ecological, social and ethical consequences of your discoveries in the field of life be measured, we had to reach a decision on the maintenance, or not, of the research budgets. What safeguard can be imposed against the eugenic temptation foreseen by your hypotheses? Sacrificing the enrichment of breeding for the benefit of an artificial and very certainly contagious life cannot receive our support. The contribution of your work to the knowledge of individual characteristics is one thing, but modifying the transmission of these characteristic by such inhuman means is another. As a consequence, the Office of Technology of Congress, in agreement with the international scientific commission has issued a report ruling on your expulsion, for life, from this community. We will be required to legislate on the archiving or destruction of your research on cellular prolongation. In conclusion, no assistance will be allocated to you; your equipment and all your work will be confiscated and re-sold. Sworn State agents will arrive on 8th of October to seal up the premises. As regards Leafmore High school, a commission will decide on the necessity of closing it or not. __Cordially yours._"Scully read_._

Mulder took the letter from Scully, "This was only a few years ago."

"It is, so someone did know, but Herbert was smart to just hide it all in the basements of the school," Scully said.

"Herbert must have been desperate, they were about to take his research away for good," Mulder said, "But why did they let him keep the school?"

"It's a school, no one would know that he would use it as his new lab and start using his student's as lab rats," Scully said, "He had the perfect cover."

"Yeah, well, it all ends here today," Mulder said earnestly, "What else is there?"

"Well, there's a map to the basements, the labs are labeled on here," Scully said, "And a key to Herbert's secret office," she said as she took a key that fell out of the labeled paper.

"It says it's in the library," Mulder said picking up the paper and continuing to read it, "Well, now we know where Herbert took off to earlier."

"And Alan's journal," Scully said as she flipped through it, "Alan Gardner."

"What's in it?" Kenny asked.

"Well, just some newspaper articles, some stuff we already knew like the missing students, and that he's wondered why the police have never looked into the school," Scully read.

"Well here we are, and now I get why they avoided coming here," Mulder said darkly, "Herbert was doing the police a favor," he said peeved.

Scully looked over at Mulder and gave him a look that said, _'I know you're upset, please keep it in check'_.

He nodded his apology, "What else does he write about?"

"The school was founded in 1902 by the Friedman twins, he notices that Herbert is still the principal and must be over a hundred by now, and he wonders why they haven't aged, especially Wickson," Scully said skimming down the pages, "Birth certificate of all three, and wedding certificate of Wickson and Leonard."

"So how old is Friedman really?" Stan asked.

"He would be one-hundred and fifty-seven," Scully said, "Assuming all this is true," she added.

"I was waiting for that, you haven't been skeptical enough for me through this," Mulder quipped.

Scully gave him a dry look and continued reading, "Alan mentions the plane crash and the lack of a crash site, plane, and body,"

"Guess I was right," Mulder said.

"Also some articles about their experimentation when it was just on animals and research," Scully read, "In 1890 they went on an expedition to Africa to find medicinal plants. They had stayed for six months and brought back a large number of, at that time, unknown varieties of plants, including the Mortifilia. It was the main subject of their research."

"So they brought this thing back from Africa," Mulder said, "I've never heard of it. How did they come across it?"

"I have no idea Mulder, and it doesn't say, only Herbert can answer that for us," Scully said, "Also there's just some pictures of the infected people in a lab, the experiments."

"Is there anything in there that we don't know?" Mulder asked slightly annoyed.

Scully skimmed it a little, "Ah, actually there is, Alan figured out where the lab is and how to enter it."

"Well, we have the map now," Stan said, "So how did he get in?"

Scully read a bit further, "Um, actually he didn't get in, but he found the way to open that gate in the stone courtyard," she began, "The lab is in the basement, and their house is where it is,"

"Their house is on campus?" Shannon asked confused, "I never knew,"

"That's why the gardens were always off limits," Kenny said, "I found it when I went after him that night," he shuddered a bit.

Shannon took his hand supportively.

"There are things down there I wish to never see again," Kenny said.

"We have to go there," Stan said, "It's the only way to stop Friedman."

"I wish it weren't," Kenny said.

"Well, he was able to get a hold of Herbert's notes. According to the notes, the anti-aging serum has yet to be perfected, prolonged exposure to the sun results in mutation and failure of the serum_," _Scully read, "And he mentions the door that Wickson was talking about, but nothing about it really, he also mentions _'little statues'_, three around the library, and one in the gardens, he was going to see about it the next day."

"Obviously he didn't make it," Mulder stated, "We will, we have to."

"What statues do you think he means, I've never seen any," Stan said curiously.

"Well, there's an odd note, it says to look in the chimney flue," Scully said reading a note that fell out.

Kenny walked over, put his hand up the flue, and pulled out a statuette of a person kneeling with its hands behind its back.

"So we're looking for more of these," Kenny said.

"Good, now let's head over to the library," Shannon said.

They exited down to the ground floor careful not to be too noticeable to the infected.

They passed the common room. Olivia was talking to one of the infected who seemed to just be ignoring her.


	14. Chapter thirteen

**Chapter thirteen **

The group exited the dormitories and headed for the library. They entered and walked to the back of the library. Mulder unlocked the door that Herbert had disappeared through earlier.

They entered the office and saw that it was filled with African artifacts and masks.

"Wow, this guy is really obsessed with Africa," Mulder said as he picked up a small statue on a bookshelf.

"Hey, that looks like one of the statue thingies that Alan had," Shannon said.

Mulder looked it over, "So it does. Except it's missing its arms and head," he said.

"Great. We have two, so two more to go," Stan said.

Scully had walked over to Herbert's desk as the others talked. She found a loaded Revolver and ammunition in his desk along with a reel of film. She picked it up to look at it. It was labeled **ARCHIVE 24**.

"What'cha got there Scully?" Mulder asked as he came over to her.

"Film reel, and weaponry," she said showing him, "So we have another statuette?"

"Yeah," he said showing her.

"Well, I guess we go back to the amphitheater to view this," Mulder said indicating the film reel.

Scully nodded, "Yeah, so let's head back that way," she said and led the group through the library and back into the hallway.

They were surprised to meet Walden. He looked lost and just as surprised to see them too.

"Oh, you're still here?" he said lightly.

"You again?" Mulder said as he approached him, "You son of a bitch you set us up!" he exclaimed, shoving Walden against the wall roughly.

Scully pulled Mulder back, "Mulder!"

Walden looked at him startled, "Excuse me?"

"You gave us that key to the basement. Friedman showed up and now we're all infected!" Mulder said heatedly.

"You are…I-I didn't know that he would…I didn't set you up…is he still there?" Walden said frantically.

Mulder calmed a bit. Scully released her hold on him, but still stood between them.

"No idea. Now we need to find the antidote," Mulder said annoyed.

"It-it's completed?" Walden asked surprised.

Scully gave Walden a searching look, "From what Wickson said," Scully answered.

"She didn't mention…uh, so you have any idea of where it may be? Does Wickson have it?" Walden asked.

"She's dead," Mulder stated.

"But how? Why?" Walden said appalled.

"Herbert," Stan said.

"He wouldn't…" Walden said stunned but looked at them seriously, "Where's the antidote?" Walden asked aggressively.

"There's a lab in the basements; another part of the basements," Mulder said, "Ever see a big door?"

"No…how are you supposed to find it?" Walden asked.

"Map," Mulder said holding it in his hand.

Walden looked at it and then at the group.

"Will there be enough antidote…_for all of us_?" Walden asked scrutinizing the group, but then started coughing violently.

The five moved back from him, looking at him startled.

Walden doubled over and coughed up some black stuff. After the fit passed, Walden looked at them alarmed.

The five were still watching him, unsure of what to do. Walden decided to take advantage of their moment of shock. He grabbed the map out of Mulder's hand and shoved him back. Mulder fell against the group and knocked them down.

"Hey!" Mulder cried out angrily.

Walden ran for the exit.

Mulder disentangled himself, with Kenny, from the rest and followed after Walden.

Walden was faster. He made it out of the door and locked it behind him.

Mulder and Kenny started banging on the door.

"Damn it, you son of a bitch!" Mulder called pounding harshly on the door.

"Come back!" Kenny said shoving himself against the door.

The door was barred and just wasn't going to open. Mulder and Kenny finally gave up.

Stan, Scully, and Shannon came up behind them.

"Idiot!" Mulder exclaimed, slamming his fist against the door one last time.

"Mulder, don't worry, we'll find it without the map," Scully said calmly.

He looked at her sharply, "_Don't_ tell me not to worry. _You_ don't have that crap incubating in your body," he snapped at her and walked down the hall to find another door.

Scully looked after him remorsefully.

"Hey," Stan said.

Everyone looked at him.

"Uh, these doors are opened, earlier they were locked," Stan said standing in front of a couple of doors in the middle of the hall.

"They lead to the upper floors of the library and to the third floor of the school," Shannon said.

"They were locked before?" Mulder questioned as he walked over to the doors.

"Yeah," Stan said.

"So we're assuming that Walden opened them. I don't think I trust anything that man does now," Mulder said warily.

"We don't have a choice, it's the only door that's opened," Scully said and walked past into the stairwell behind the doors.

The group followed her, knowing she was right.

The first door up the stairs led to the balcony of the library and they found a third statuette. This one had its hands around its neck, as if it were choking. They took it and headed up to the third floor.

The hall was empty. They walked to the end to the main doors that led to the second floor of the main courtyard. The doors were locked.

Mulder hit the doors, frustrated, "I'm so tired of this," he complained.

No one said anything, but they all agreed with him.

They spread out to search the six classrooms.

Scully and Shannon were looking in the classroom to the right of the stairwell they had entered. Scully was walking around a big cabinet. She saw that behind it was a door.

"Hey, Shannon, help me move this," Scully said.

Shannon looked at her perplexed.

"It looks like something is behind here," Scully explained.

They pushed the cabinet to the right. It was a door and it led into another classroom.

Shannon and Scully searched it. There wasn't really much to it. It was an ordinary classroom.

Shannon was looking through the desk, "Hey, Agent Scully, I found a set of keys," she said holding a ring of keys.

"Great, hopefully these work for this building," Scully said and they went back into the main hallway.

Mulder and Stan were trying to figure out a way to open the main doors.

Scully walked over to them, "This might help," she said showing Mulder the keys.

"Hope so, unless Vick thinks this joke is funny a second time around," Mulder said as he tried the keys.

Scully only rolled her eyes, deciding not to point out that the janitor was dead. She didn't need a discussion about the dead having a sense of humor too.

The fifth key Mulder tried opened the door.

"Yes," Mulder said opening the doors.

"Well, let's head over to the amphitheater," Scully said.

"Yeah, hopefully we met Walden again," Mulder said as he withdrew his gun to check that it was loaded.

Scully gave him a reproachful look.

Mulder caught it, and shrugged, "He's mutating, I'd have the right to kill him," he said.

"_After_ he's mutated, all right," she said firmly.

"Potato, patato," Mulder said nonchalantly.

The five headed over the amphitheater's projection room. Mulder set up the film and played it.

It was silent and in black and white.

This time it showed Leonard, Herbert, and Elisabeth as they worked in a lab. In the beginning, it seemed that they worked on bugs, mice, and rats. The film scene then changed to looking at paperwork on a desk. On the paper written boldly were the numbers 0582 and they were circled. The film ended.

"Those numbers looked important," Scully said as she wrote them down in her notepad.

"They might open that gate," Shannon said.

"Cool, then let's head back there," Stan said.

They walked backed to the stoned courtyard. Shannon entered the code and the gate opened.

The five walked through the gate. The gate closed behind them.

The area they entered was completely covered with overgrown bushes and trees. The path before them was a little tricky to maneuver. They started walking careful not to trip over the underbrush.

They came to a turn in the path and saw that up ahead of them were two mutants that seemed to have just turned.

Mulder signaled Stan and Kenny to go ahead with him.

The three killed the monsters before they could attack them.

They continued onward and the path ended at a gate. They walked through.

The next area was still a path heavily covered with bushes.

As they approached a small bridge, Mulder looked in the water. He saw something huge swimming in the stream under the bridge. He stopped Scully and pointed it out.

Scully looked at it apprehensively, "Do you think it will attack?" she asked.

"I don't know, but let's just hurry past in case it decides to," Mulder said as he rushed the others over.

They came to a fork in the path. The right path was a dead end. To the left they met up with a fully transformed monster. Its hands were just long sharp claws and its mouth was only tongue and teeth. Kenny and Stan killed it.

"I'm never going to get used to this," Kenny said slightly shaken.

"Yeah, well, if you turn into one, you won't have to worry," Stan said.

"Shut up," Shannon snapped, punching Stan's shoulder hard.

"Hey, sorry, it's just…well isn't that what we're all headed for," he defended.

"We'll find the cure," Mulder said calmly.

"And if we don't?" Stan challenged.

"Look, let's not get discouraged yet," Mulder said, "We need to keep moving, it'll be light soon," he said looking at his watch.

It was nearing five am.

They all agreed and started walking again.

The path ended at a crumbling wall. Stan, Kenny, and Mulder dismantled it and they continued.

The path came to another fork. The five went right and ended up at a decaying gazebo. Mounted on an alter in the gazebo was another statuette. This one was of a man on his knees praying.

"Great, now we have all four," Shannon said taking it.

"How do we use them though?" Stan asked.

"We'll find out once we get to where they belong, wherever that is," Mulder said.

"That's vague," Kenny scoffed.

"Hey, do I look like Friedman? I didn't set this up!" Mulder snapped, "Let's just get going," he said and walked ahead of the group.

They followed. Scully watched after him worriedly.

They headed to the left side of the path and ended up at a wrought iron door. They walked through and saw that they were on the side of a house.

"The mansion," Scully said.

"Hey, this is where I started when I went missing," Kenny said as he studied it.

Mulder tried to front door, "It's locked," he said.

Kenny went to the other side of the house, "The doors that lead to the basements are opened still," he said edgily.

"Well, let's get going," Mulder said and headed for the doors.

Kenny held him back. Mulder looked at Kenny inquiringly.

"Those things are loose now," he said.

"I know," Mulder said, "They're all over the school," he said impatiently.

"Yeah, but in there is ground zero, it's mostly just the transformed or fully transformed," Kenny explained.

Mulder sighed. He knew that Kenny didn't want to have to face those things again. He didn't know fully of what Kenny experienced these last few weeks.

"Look, we have to go down there. There isn't any other way, obviously Friedman or Walden aren't coming back to give us the cure," Mulder said, "We have to go down there, and we aren't going to separate."

Kenny looked at him torn. He obviously didn't want to go back down into the basements. After a moment, he nodded.

"All right," Mulder said.

Stan led the group, but immediately ran back out of the basement entrance as three monsters followed him. They had just transformed.

The group shot them dead and then proceeded, cautiously, down into the basement.


	15. Chapter fourteen

**Chapter fourteen**

The five walked down the stairs and ended up in a small storage room.

Kenny rushed forward, "I don't understand…where's the ladder? There was a ladder here that led down," he said as he inspected a pile of barrels that now occupied the area that had held a ladder.

"It can't have just disappeared," Stan said as he helped Kenny try to move the barrels, but they wouldn't budge.

"Hey, what's this thing here?" Shannon said standing next to the wall and inspecting what seemed to have been a lever.

It had been broken to just a nub.

"It may be a hidden door thing," Kenny said as he tried to move it, but couldn't get a grasp on it.

Stan and Mulder started looking around the room for a tool, or something could use to move it.

Mulder found large pliers. He used it on the lever and moved it down.

The barrels moved aside and revealed the ladder that Kenny mentioned.

Kenny decided to go first. He led the group down and stood in a familiar hallway bathed in red light.

"It's strange," Shannon said suddenly.

The four turned to look at her.

She shrugged, "I mean being in this darkness, with the red light…I kind of feel more at ease, I don't hurt so much anymore," she explained.

Mulder didn't notice it until she mentioned it, but he felt better now too. He had sort of been in pain since he had been infected, but now he felt better. He didn't take that as a good sign.

Stan and Kenny agreed.

"It makes sense to his research," Scully said, "Friedman wouldn't want to compromise the test subjects to the wrong lighting, and the other basement had red lights as well."

"Well, let's find him because I don't want to have to live in red light for the rest of my life," Mulder grumbled, moving on.

"Unless you want to end it in one go," Stan shrugged.

"Stan, knock it off, I don't want to…to die," Shannon said on the verge of tears.

"Yeah come on, man, knock it off," Kenny said putting an arm around his sister, "It's not over until it's over."

"I'm just being honest…it's practically over," Stan argued.

Kenny was about to respond, but Mulder interrupted him.

"Stop it, I know you all are just kids, but grow up!" Mulder snapped harshly, "Now let's go, we've got things to do and not a lot of time."

The three agreed and started walking.

Scully however held Mulder back.

"Mulder, are you okay?" she asked worriedly.

"No, I'm not. I'm with Stan, but one of us needs to be the leader or else those three will just bicker until no end," Mulder sighed, "Makes me rethink having children," he laughed lightly.

Scully gave him a small smile, "You don't have to be the strong one, all right, I can be leader too," she said.

"I need to be strong. I don't need to fall apart like them," Mulder admitted, "I want to believe that everything will turn out all right."

"It will," Scully said earnestly.

Mulder nodded and started walking. Scully followed.

Kenny, Shannon, and Stan had already entered the room and were looking around. The room held destroyed cages and the middle room was missing a door.

"Find anything?" Scully asked.

"Just these," Shannon said coming over to Scully with a file.

Scully took them and perused them. After a minute, a troubled expression came over her face.

"What's it say?" Mulder asked coming to stand with her.

"Well some pictures of the Mortifilia and other mutated test subjects," Scully said handing him the photos.

Mulder didn't really look at them. He didn't want to know what might happen to him if they were to fail.

"What else?" he said.

"It's just a logging of the mutations caused by the plant; _Post-treatment mutations; Type 1: Generalized melanomic attack: Prolonged exposure to UV creates micro-cancers in every individual, combated by the cells using specific proteins. The treatment stops the creation of these proteins. The subject therefore develops numerous skin cancers. These cancers revive the inert mutagenous properties of the treatment. The cancer becomes general and often gives rise to type 2, 3 and 4 mutations. Type 2: Polytrophy of the members: Very frequent, this mutation causes hypertrophy in the subject or hypertrophy in one of its members. It manifests itself in the over-development of the arms, of only some phalanxes, the tongue, etc. The hypertrophy is sometimes generalized and causes wounds that are often gangrenous. Type 3: displacement of the central nervous system: The nervous system is relieved and then replaced by a hybrid nervous system. The symptom is spectacular, as the head is neglected to benefit other organs. It is often lost by the subject after long days left without blood flow. Type 4: merging: In a non-sterile environment, the subject sometimes comes into contact with foreign bodies. On occasion, these bodies (fly, ameba) have merged with the subject. The results are very variable. _

_Sometimes very little of the original individual can be recognized," _Scully read_._

"Sounds fun," Mulder deadpanned and started looking around the room with the others.

Scully wanted to reprimand him, but she knew that he was just scared and it was best if he didn't act like it. He was right; Kenny, Stan, and Shannon needed some sort of comfort and strength. If Mulder believed they would be fine, then they believed it and became more productive in helping instead of fighting each other and losing hope.

"There really isn't much here," Kenny said, "Earlier there were mostly monsters here, but I guess they got loose," he said.

"Well, let's keep moving," Mulder said.

Kenny led them to a door on the far side of the room. It was a heavy metal valved door. He unlocked it and walked through it.

They entered the next room. It held only two doors. After a moment, they felt the ground shake. After the shaking stopped, it did however continue to lightly vibrate.

"Leonard is getting active," Mulder said, "I wonder why?"

"The antidote," Scully said, "He's looking forward to being human again."

"Me too," Stan said and walked to the door on the right.

"No!" Kenny said stopping him.

Stan looked at him alarmed.

"It's a prison cell, there might be a monster in there," Kenny said.

Stan nodded, but gave him a puzzled expression.

"I've been this way before," was all Kenny offered.

Stan accepted it and instead opened the left door.

The room they entered was a small lab. It had an upper platform.

"Somebody cleaned the lab out," Scully said looking at a filing cabinet that had its contents pulled out and scattered.

"We have two choices," Mulder said indicating a door to their direct left and one on a platform.

"Platform," Stan and Kenny said.

The others agreed.

They walked up the platform and through the door.

It was another storage room with cages, mostly large ones on wheels.

They walked farther in and saw that on the far right was another heavy metal door and a ladder.

Mulder went to open the door. He looked out and saw that it was a familiar hallway.

"Hey, Scully!" Mulder beckoned to her to come and look.

"Isn't this the other side of the basements?" he asked for confirmation.

Scully scrutinized the corridor, "Uh, yeah, but this door was locked earlier," she said perplexed.

"Someone is running around cleaning up," Mulder said.

He came back into the room with the cages.

"Wanna try the ladder?" Stan said looking up and saw that it was closed at the top.

"Yeah," Mulder said.

Stan climbed up first and opened the hatch.

He looked around for a minute before he climbed the rest of the way into the room above.

"Hey, it's Friedman's office, the one in the library," Stan called down.

Everyone exchanged looks of bemusement and started up the ladder.

They stepped up into the room.

"So it is," Mulder said looking around.

The secret ladder had been located in the far left of the room and had been covered by a rug.

"So this is how Friedman has been getting around," Scully said, "He's got secret passages all around."

Mulder nodded, "Well, at least we know why we never ran into him. Slick," he said almost impressed.

"These are new," Scully said standing at Herbert's desk, thumbing though some files.

"What are they about this time?" Mulder asked.

"Some more pictures of someone mutating, really Herbert was sick, he has so many pictures," Scully said disgusted giving the pictures no more then a passing glance, "Anyway, the files are about his test subjects," she said and handed Mulder a file.

He looked at it: _Subject 22 - February 17. Age: 17 years: Rhesus: 0 negative: Preparation for test No. 1735: Preparation in sterile conditions, for 50 hours at 37*C. Of 7.2 mg/ml of XGM and 100 mM of methylglioxak, prepared in a swab of phosphate 100 mM pH 7.8. Exposure time to UV after injection of the agent: 72 hours. Waiting time before Injection of the treatment: 20 days. Pathology level: Level 3 (metastatic): Reaction to the treatment: Day 1: General condition: stable pathology. Temperature: 33*C. Day 2: General condition: unstable pathology. Temperature: 38*C. Day 3: General condition: numerous hemorrhages. Temperature: 43*C. FAILURE: death of subject. CONCLUSION: In man, the apoptosis of parasites induced by the XGM is governed by the inducement of an oxidizing stress. This stress must be controlled._

"Are they all the same?" Mulder asked when he finished.

Scully looked through a few other files and then nodded, "Yes, he failed with all of them," she answered.

"Didn't matter to him did it, he just kept going," Mulder said sickened.

"Anything for his brother," Scully said feeling the same contempt.

"There isn't much we can do here, the only door we haven't tried is the left door in the little lab," Shannon said.

"Let's head back then," Scully said and they backtracked to the lab.

They entered the door to the left and were stunned by what they saw.

The room was another lab, but there were trays of the Mortifilia growing. The room was set up to be a like a green house.

"He has so much," Shannon said as she touched the plant lightly.

"These aren't the original Mortifilia," Mulder said confused.

Scully studied them and saw that he was right.

The Mortifilia plant grew as reeds and looked likes trees when full grown; these were blossoming into flowers.

"He crossbred them…successfully by the looks of it," Stan said sounding defeated.

"But why?" Kenny asked.

"The spores. He wants the Mortifilia to be resilient, to spread," Mulder said in disbelief.

"Even if we destroy his subjects and his serum, these flowers will still bloom and give of the spores," Scully said, "They'll spread and create more. He won't lose his research or subject if he keeps these."

"We have to destroy them," Mulder said looking around the room frantically.

He picked up different vials with chemicals and started pouring them on the trays. The rest started helping him.

All the trays were drowned.

"They have to be dead," Mulder said inspecting them.

The chemicals had burned some of the flowers.

"Hopefully, unless he already has a sample on him," Kenny said.

"What? Are you taking over for Stan?" Shannon snapped, "Let's just assume he doesn't and that this will end tonight."

"Friedman has secret passages all around; maybe he already acquired a sample. I'm just being realistic," Kenny argued.

"I was as well, but you all jumped down my throat too," Stan grumbled.

Shannon glared at them, "I can't believe you, just stop being so negative!"

"I'm being honest!" Kenny shouted.

"You're being an idiot!" Shannon countered.

Kenny was about to retort, but was interrupted by Scully.

"Enough!" Scully said sharply glaring at all of them to challenge her.

The three grudgingly quieted. Mulder was slightly amused.

Scully walked towards a table full of papers and started to sift through them.

Mulder followed after her. She sighed heavily.

"I think _I'm_ rethinking the whole having children thing," she said wearily, looking up at him.

"You'd do great, and besides I doubt you and your children would be doing _this_ on a regular basis," he said earnestly.

Scully gave him a small appreciative smile and then sighed her frustration, "They're just scared, we all are, I know that," she said and gave up looking through the papers realizing they were worthless

Mulder nodded, "It's true, so we should keep moving then."

Scully looked around the room. She saw Kenny, Shannon, and Stan were softly conversing amongst themselves. She also took relevance of the door in the right corner and a ladder leading down on the left side.

"We should see what's on the other side of the door," Scully said.

"All right," Mulder nodded, "Hey, guys, let's go," he called to the three.

They opened the door and entered into the room.

The room was huge and was completely bathed in red light. The room was also full of think tree roots and to the left was the huge door. They finally found what they were looking for.

"It's the door," Kenny said walking over the stone door.

"Duh," Shannon rolled her eyes, but followed him.

"Hey be careful of what you touch," Mulder said indicating the roots, "I don't want Leonard to know we're here."

The group agreed and walked carefully to the door.

They inspected the door. It was made of thick stone and divided into four parts.

Kenny hit it, "How are we supposed to open it?"

"Open sesame!" Stan said grandly.

"Gee, I wonder why that didn't work," Kenny said sarcastically.

"Oh Stan," Shannon said, but was slightly amused.

"Worth a shot," he smirked.

"That's something I'd have expected from you," Scully said quietly to Mulder.

He shrugged, "I'm off my game today."

Scully shook her head, faintly amused, "I recall it having to do with the statues," Scully answered, "But how?"

"The last area to search is through the ladder," Shannon pointed out.

"Back we go," Stan sighed annoyed.

They headed down the ladder and into a storage room. The storage room had a door to the left. They entered it and stepped onto a metal mesh platform.

In the middle of the room was a large alter with four little alters connected to it.

In the middle of the alter were many roots from a tree that connected to gears and the alters.

"Leonard?" Mulder questioned.

"I have no idea," Scully said.

They walked over to the alter.

"Well, there are four alters so I assume the statues go in them," Shannon said.

Stan placed the four statues in the alters and the five waited.

"I guess we did it wrong?" Mulder said unsure.

Then the ground started to shake violently and the statues sunk into the ground. After a minute, the shaking subsided and the ground was still.

"Leonard should know someone's coming now," Mulder said steadying himself.

"Let's get back to the red room," Stan said.

"Wait!" Shannon said.

They all looked at her.

"Um, do we know what we're doing, or facing?" Shannon asked nervously.

"A tree that's human," Mulder said simply, "So I assume bullets still hurt like hell."

Shannon nodded and the group headed back to the huge red room. The door had opened.

They walked up to the opened door, but stopped when they heard yelling.

A few feet into the room were Herbert and Walden.

Mulder stopped them. He didn't want to interrupt them or be noticed when he saw Walden with a gun.

"Give me the antidote!" Walden yelled pointing a gun at Friedman.

Herbert backed away from him, fearful, and clutching a metal suitcase to his body.

"No. You've been exposed to too much light it won't work on you," Herbert said, "It'll be a waste."

"You tricked me you son of a bitch. You told Elisabeth to give me the wrong one," Walden screamed still waving the gun.

Herbert flinched, "I had to. You wanted to ruin me and my research," he said.

"I didn't. I'll admit I wanted to claim it as my own, I mean come on Herbert you're old, you won't live to reap the benefits," Walden said, "But then I realized that you've been old for so long; you've perfected it haven't you?" he said.

"I haven't you dolt, haven't you noticed that Elisabeth and I never leave the darkness. We can't, we'd die, and now so will you?!" Herbert exclaimed angrily.

"I won't goddamn it, give me that case!" Walden screamed.

"I can't let you ruin this Denny," Herbert said sorrowfully, "I have bigger plans for this, and you're not worth saving now."

"Neither are you Herbert," Walden said regretfully cocking the gun and aiming it at Herbert's chest.

"Walden!" Mulder called walking a little closer to them.

Walden looked at him surprised.

"Stop this, no one needs to die," Mulder said calmly, "He can help us."

"He can help _me_," Walden spat, "I have no intention of wasting a drop of the Mortifilia on you or your group."

Mulder aimed his gun at him, "At the moment you don't have a choice."

Walden seemed to be weighing his options.

"I can't save any of you!" Herbert said to Mulder and Walden.

"I know, you want to save Leonard first," Mulder said.

Herbert looked surprised that Mulder knew, "I have to. He's suffered longer then any of you have, longer then I have," Herbert said sadly, "I'm sorry for everything, but I have to continue my work, I can't let any of you ruin it."

"Give me the case Herbert now!" Walden said, "Don't be stupid, the Mortifilia makes you immortal not invulnerable, and I have the upper hand here!" Walden shouted; gun still trained on him.

"You may Denny, but I have no intention of being bullied, you deserve what's coming to you," Herbert said firmly.

Walden shook his head disappointed, "And so do you Friedman," Walden said and fired at him twice.

Herbert crumpled to the ground.

Walden rushed to him and grabbed the suitcase.

"NO! Damn it Walden," Mulder said.

Walden dove for cover when Mulder shot at him.

Walden hid behind a sidewall.

"I had to do it!" he called.

Mulder and the group walked farther into the room,

It was larger then the other room. It was full of roots and was more like a cave then part of the building. It also was lit with red light. Everyone stopped when they heard a low growling and saw movement from the middle of the room.

In the middle of a room was a large opening and out of it rose a thick tree root. It touched the ground and then reached for the ceiling. It broke though it slightly and used it to lift itself a little. Then another four roots reached out to the ceiling and the tree climbed up higher just to see what was going on. Another root came up in the middle. This one held a face. It was Leonard.


	16. Chapter fifteen

**Chapter fifteen **

Leonard looked around, confused at all of them and of the commotion that had gone on.

He stared at them as everyone stared at it transfixed.

Herbert moved slightly. Leonard focused on his brother.

Herbert groaned and looked at Leonard sorrowfully.

With his final breathe, Herbert spoke to Leonard, "Forgive me…I almost found the formula… I almost did it."

Herbert then went limp and didn't move again.

Leonard wailed, flailing his roots. He laid eyes on a still stunned Walden. He had the suitcase and gun.

Leonard swung a root at him and threw him against the wall.

Walden fell to the ground and didn't move. Leonard was still raging.

The group stared at the tree unsure of what to do.

Mulder saw the case and knew that he had to get it. He knew he also had to destroy anything that had to do with the Friedman brother's research, meaning Leonard. Mulder didn't take long to come up with a plan.

"Shannon," Mulder said suddenly.

She looked at him, "Yeah," she said.

"You have to get the case, the rest of us will deal with Leonard," Mulder explained.

Shannon nodded.

"Protect it with your life," Mulder said.

She gave him a small smile, "I have to, it's worth all our lives," she said.

Mulder nodded and then turned to Stan, Kenny, and Scully.

"We need to take out the roots that Leonard has put in the ceiling," Mulder said, "If it hurts him, he'll pull his roots down, hopefully taking the ceiling down."

"What good will that do?" Stan asked.

"If I'm correct, we're under the gym. The windows will let in the light," Mulder said and looked at his watch, "It's seven, its morning."

"He'll burn, but you guys have to be careful too," Scully said concerned.

"We'll be fine," Mulder said, "We just need this end," he said.

Scully nodded and everyone took out their weapons, making sure they were loaded.

"I'll distract Leonard so that Shannon can get the case," Mulder said, "Then Shannon just keep out of the way as much as possible," he explained to her.

"I'll be all right," she said.

"The rest of you follow me and take out the roots," Mulder said.

"Sounds easier said then done," Kenny stated.

"It is, but it's all we got," Mulder said honestly.

Everyone agreed and Mulder ran farther into the room and closer to Leonard.

Leonard was still flailing and pounding on the walls unaware that Mulder was approaching him. Mulder avoided the crumbling walls and hoped the ceiling had weakened enough.

Mulder saw that the case was near the left wall. He needed Leonard to focus on him.

"Hey, Leonard!" Mulder called.

Leonard stopped for a moment. He looked at Mulder suspiciously.

"I killed Herbert too, I helped Walden," Mulder said hoping it would enrage Leonard.

Leonard screamed and swung at Mulder.

Mulder dove out of the way and ran to the right and Leonard kept swinging at him.

Mulder saw that Shannon had started for the case, but was noticed by Leonard. He then turned on her.

"S**t," Mulder swore, "Leonard!" he called and started firing.

The tree cried out in pain, but continued after Shannon. It swung at her, but Kenny tackled her.

The root missed them by inches.

Mulder was slightly relieved.

Stan and Scully came in and started firing at the roots.

Mulder helped them.

They succeeded in bringing one root down. It did what Mulder hoped.

Parts of the ceiling crumbled and he saw thorough the opening that there was light.

The light hit Leonard, he started screaming in agony, and his flailing became frenzied. He had nowhere to hide or move to for cover. He was trapped in the light.

Leonard started attacking all of them fiercely. He swung and had nearly hit Scully. She was luckily quick to get out of the way.

They brought down a second root and the ceiling opened more. Leonard cried out in pain louder and started attacking more violently.

Mulder was glad that his plan was working, but noticed that Stan, Kenny, and Shannon having trouble maneuvering to stay out of the light.

If this didn't go right, Scully would be the last one fighting this damned tree, and if she was the last one standing, they need to take out as many as possible for her to defeat Leonard on her own.

A third root went down, and the sunlight coming in forced Shannon and Stan to be trapped on the left side of the wall in the limited shade.

The light intensified on Leonard and parts of him started to smoke and light with fire. He seemed to be ignoring it and focused more on trying to kill the others.

Stan tried to shoot a root from his angle, but he stopped when Leonard focused on him and started attacking him and Shannon. They had nowhere to run.

Kenny and Scully brought the focus back on them, and they took down the fourth root. Kenny was unluckily caught in the light that came from opening that part of the ceiling.

He screamed out in pain and scrambled into the shadows with Stan and Shannon.

Scully looked like she wanted to go after him, but knew that Leonard needed to be finished.

Pulling down the fourth root opened too much light that Mulder couldn't continue fighting. He was trapped now on the right side of the cave and the last root was out of sight for Mulder to keep shooting at it.

Some of Leonard's roots had now caught fire. He was slowly burning. They need the last root to fall.

Scully was the last one now, and Leonard was completely focused on her.

He swung and missed Scully, but just barely. He started flailing at her and she wasn't able to continue her assault on the last root.

Stan had started firing at Leonard to bring focus on him so that Scully could continue.

It worked and Leonard started swinging at them. Although it was difficult for Kenny, Stan, and Shannon to keep dodging the roots, Stan kept firing.

Mulder started firing at Leonard to take the focus off the other three and still let Scully continue.

Leonard turned to Mulder and started swinging. Mulder stayed out the roots way.

Leonard was focused on the others and had forgotten about Scully.

She recovered and started shooting at the last root.

Leonard was confused at whom to keep attacking now that he was being attacked from different directions.

Finally, it didn't matter; the last root fell.

The ceiling completely caved in. Everyone ducked for cover to keep from being hit by parts of the collapsing ceiling and trying to still stay out of the light.

The room was brightly lit with sunlight and Leonard screamed out in agony and burst into fire.

Everyone watched as the tree burned into ash.

The nightmare was finally over.

They all looked at each other, slightly amazed to realize that they had survived 'til morning.

Scully walked over to the teenagers and assessed them.

Kenny hadn't been really affected by the sunlight. It only hurt him.

Scully opened the case. It held six vials and an injection gun.

Scully injected the three of them.

After she finished with them, she started for Mulder. He was resting against the wall.

Scully noticed that Shannon, Kenny, and Stan weren't following her.

The three looked at the sunlight warily.

"What if we're not fine? What if it didn't work?" Shannon said worriedly.

"It has to," Stan said but still didn't step into the light.

"The light hurt like hell, but…," Kenny said and tentatively walked into the light.

He flinched slightly when the light touched him, but realized that he didn't feel any pain. He smiled and laughed.

"I'm normal," he said happily.

"You're you, Kenny. Normal isn't what I'd call you," Shannon teased.

Kenny glared at her, but smiled.

Shannon walked into the light as well and was relieved. She embraced Kenny.

"I missed you, Kenny," Shannon said tearfully.

"Me too, but we're fine," he said holding her tightly.

Stan walked into the light and was happy too.

Shannon hugged him too. Stan was surprised, but held her too.

Scully decided to let them be. She walked over to Mulder.

"It works?" Mulder said wearily.

She knelt next to him.

"It seems so," Scully said and loaded the injection gun.

Scully gave him the antidote.

He sighed relieved, "Thank god, I really did hate those red lights," he quipped.

Scully gave a small laugh. She looked relived too.

She helped him up and he walked into the sunlight.

The sun felt warm and perfect. It didn't hurt.

Scully stood next to him. She was still watching him.

He smiled at her, "I'm not going to burst into flames, Scully," he said.

"I know, that would be a whole different X-file," she smiled, but tearful.

He laughed lightly and pulled her into his arms in a tight embrace.

"We're fine. It's over," he said reassuring her.

"I know. I wasn't worried," she said her voice breaking a bit.

"Of course you weren't," he said amused, pulling back from her to look at her, "You were great, Scully," he said firmly.

She nodded, "_We_ were. They needed us," Scully said looking at Stan, Kenny, and Shannon.

The three were just talking and seemed so much happier.

"Yeah, I'm just sorry that no one will be prosecuted for this," Mulder said grimly.

Scully touched his arm, "Hey," she said softly, "Let's worry about that later, let's just get out of here," she said.

"You're right," Mulder said and led Scully back over to the three teens.

Shannon immediately hugged Mulder. He was mildly surprised. She then hugged Scully.

"She's a hugger," Kenny said, smiling, "It's her greatest flaw," he teased.

Shannon rolled her eyes at him, but stood in front of Mulder and Scully.

"Thank you so much. It's only because of you two that I found my brother and that this nightmare is over," she said sincerely.

"It's not a problem," Mulder said, "We are the last resort and we tend to get things done."

"Thank you," Shannon said.

"Yeah, thanks for not giving up on me," Kenny said shaking Mulder and Scully's hand.

"Thanks for overall not giving up," Stan said and then turned to look at the gaping hole in what used to be the gym floor, "How do we get out of here?" he asked.

Mulder scrutinized it, "Carefully," he said and started for the rubble.

The others followed, all thankful to be leaving the school finally.


	17. Epilogue

_**Epilogue **_

Mulder stepped out of the elevator into the basement. He walked up to his office door. On the floor lay a pile of mail. He picked it up and opened his door.

He hesitated. He stared into the dark room.

Mulder sighed. He knew that he had to eventually get over what happened at Leafmore, but until then he was still afraid to enter into any dark room.

He stayed outside the door, but reached his hand in and felt along the wall for the light switch and turned it on.

They room lit with bright light. After he felt comfortable enough he stepped in and walked over to his desk. He placed the mail on the desk and hung up his coat. He then sat down at the desk.

He mentally reprimanded himself.

Today was his and Scully's first day back to work. He looked at the clock; it was nearing eight. She usually came in about now. He wondered how she was. They had decided to not talk about what happened right away and to just give each other time to collect themselves. They decided not to speak until they came back to work.

It was a week since the horror of Leafmore High school. Mulder knew that it would take time to get over everything that happened there, but he just wanted it to be instantaneous. He wanted to get back to normal and pretend that Leafmore hadn't ever happened.

He would if he could just stop having nightmares about the damned place.

Mulder shrugged it off and started sifting through his mail.

Only one envelope stuck out at him. It was a large manila envelope.

He picked it up and looked at the address.

It was from Shannon Matthews.

He opened it. In it was a letter and several newspaper articles.

Mulder read the letter:

_Dear Agent's Mulder and Scully,_

_I know that you must not want anything to do with Leafmore or me and my brother. I know that your experience here was because of us. I'm sorry, but I just wanted to give you an update of what's been going on._

_First, my brother, Stan, and I are doing well. The antidote did work. Second, is what gets me so angry._

_Everything is being denied! Even though the bodies were found, even the labs, at least I think those were found, everything is denied._

_They're saying the school collapsed because of a weakened foundation and that the bodies of the students found, the ones missing, they're saying it is because they were living in the basement and were crushed when the school collapsed. And all the evidence and files of Friedman's research have all gone missing. There is no evidence of the Mortifilia. Stan, Kenny, and I have tried to tell the truth to our town, but they all label us as crazy now, and just overstressed or that we have overactive imaginations, whatever. I suggest you just let this truth be buried; it's not worth being called crazy over this. There is no way to prove it now. All the deaths are just being linked with the collapsing of the school. _

_The school will be evaluated to see if it can be rebuilt, but I noticed that while they are having the building assessed, there are people removing things from the school. I know that it could just be stuff from the classrooms that weren't destroyed, but I have a terrible feeling that it might be some of Friedman's research. I may be paranoid, because ultimately no one believes anything we say. I still worry though, but it's over and I'm glad for it._

_Thank you again, and I hope you and Agent Scully are doing well. _

_Sincerely Shannon Matthews._

Mulder put the letter down and sighed. He looked at the articles. They were as Shannon had explained, about the school tragedy, and the crazy story that she, Kenny, and Stan had told. The three were being put in a bad light. He and Scully however were not even mentioned in any of the articles.

_Probably a good thing_, he thought.

Mulder was used to it though, being omitted from the story of a case, he also knew the feeling that Stan, Kenny, and Shannon were experiencing. He and Scully had always been called crazy and other names not worth thinking about at the moment and most of their cases had been denied before.

Even though it was something he should have gotten used to by now, it still didn't make it any less frustrating and infuriating.

Mulder slammed his fist on the table.

He didn't want this case to be one of those.

The kids he saw, the monsters they became, he wanted all of it stopped. Now he was sure that someone would be continuing what Herbert and Leonard Friedman had failed.

He was sure that soon there would be other cases like Leafmore. And he knew that it would be up to him and Scully to go through it if one ever did surface again.

It wasn't over.

His thoughts were interrupted when he heard the elevator doors open and then the clicking of heels on the floor.

Scully entered the office. She looked at him. She seemed to have expected him to be the first one there.

She placed her briefcase down and sat in her chair across from his desk.

"Hi," Scully said simply.

"Hi…how are you?" he asked and knew that it was a stupid question.

"Probably as good as you are," she answered honestly.

He nodded and looked at the letter again.

"What's that?" Scully asked curiously.

"Uh, Shannon sent us a letter about what's going on now," Mulder said.

"Well, what is going on, I haven't really kept on it," Scully said.

"It's all being denied, and we don't exist," Mulder said irritated, "No mention of what was going on, all the deaths are being attributed to the collapsing of the school."

Scully nodded, "Well, what did you expect?" she said sympathetically.

"I don't know, the truth to be told, for someone to believe and put a stop to it all," Mulder said.

Scully became uncomfortable, "We believe and we put a stop to it. We stopped it," she said firmly.

"No…Shannon says that the files have gone missing, and people are removing things from the school. She doesn't know what, but those labs weren't destroyed so…" he said.

"Maybe it's being destroyed," Scully suggested.

"No, not going to happen, someone will find that research too good to just destroy, there will be more study of it, and testing, and they might follow the Friedman brother's lead; another high school," Mulder said sickened at the thought.

"I don't know what to say, Mulder," Scully said, and looked through her briefcase and pulled out a few files.

He looked at them curiously.

"I kind of knew that this would happen…I made copies of everything we found before the originals were confiscated from us," Scully said, "I just wonder who wanted it hushed."

Mulder took the files from her and looked through them, skipping over the photos. He saw the monsters in his head every moment. He knew that neither he nor she would ever forget what the monsters looked like.

"Someone who read these and understood what the research and testing's meant for humanity," Mulder said.

"This doesn't aid anyone," Scully said, "From what I've read, it's nearly impossible for _anyone_ to modify the Mortifilia to make anyone immortal and not have any mutations," Scully explained.

"I don't think that would stop anyone. Isn't that what research is for? Someone will continue it," Mulder said grimly.

Scully sighed frustrated, "Mulder I don't know what you want me to say, or do, I'm on your side, I…believe this, but…" she trailed off and looked at him contemplatively.

"What?" he said curiously.

She looked at her hands, "I don't know why anyone would when the research has proven fruitless so far. Herbert even said it…he almost had it, but didn't," she said, "It still just makes me wonder about what I injected into you, Stan, Kenny, and Shannon."

"We're fine. I've been in light and nothing bad has happened to me," Mulder said confidently.

"Yeah, well it's not like you spend a lot of time outside, you're always in the basement," Scully said amused.

He nodded, "True, but really, I feel fine, and I've noticed nothing out of the ordinary with me," he assured.

"I know, but still I just wonder what he almost perfected. What was he accomplishing?" Scully said.

"Well, we'll never know," Mulder said, "Anyway, I heard you had a meeting with Skinner, what did he want?" he said needing the change of subject.

"To discuss the case further," she said uncomfortably.

Mulder scrutinized her and sighed heavily, "You told him the story that _they_ created?"

"Actually no, I told him the truth, but he's going with the story that they created," Scully explained, "He has to, it's the only one that makes sense, but he accepts that we believe what we believe."

"He's always been good about that," Mulder said approvingly.

She pulled another file from her case. Mulder looked at her expectantly.

"Another case…so soon?" Mulder asked surprised.

She shrugged, "Well we came back to work, so…we work," she said.

"What is it?" Mulder asked.

"We go out to Massachusetts today, to speak to a woman who believes that she is repeatedly robbed by invisible people," Scully said handing Mulder the file.

He took the file and looked through it, "Invisible people?" Mulder questioned.

"Yeah, I thought we'd start back light," Scully said frankly.

He nodded, "It could be interesting," he reasoned, "Not as interesting as Leafmore though," he said.

"I hope that we don't encounter anything as _interesting_ as Leafmore for awhile. Or ever again," Scully said seriously.

"Me too. So…invisible people it is," Mulder said standing up and grabbing his coat.

Scully nodded and picked up her briefcase and headed for the door.

Mulder looked at the files on his desk. He picked them up and walked over to a filing cabinet.

He opened the drawer and placed the files in the back, hoping to never have to take them out again.

Mulder closed the drawer and walked out of the office.

He stood with Scully at the elevator.

Mulder knew that he and Scully would never forget what they experienced at Leafmore High school. And he knew that it would take time before he could ever really get over it. He knew that it was the same for Scully, if anything probably worse for her. This experience for her was beyond anything she had experienced on the X-files, and this case couldn't easily be denied because of all the evidence they had. This was the one time that she had to believe and agree with him. He wasn't sure if he was happy about it. He wanted a skeptic outlook on this; he still had a hard time believing all of it even happened.

Either way, as he convinced himself every minute…it was over.

The elevator doors opened and Scully and he stepped into it.

He pushed the button to the garage parking.

The doors closed and he knew that he and Scully were starting their journey back to normalcy or to at least what was normal for them.

_**The end**_

**Author's note:_ There is a sequel to the game. I do have a story outlined to it too. I don't know if anyone wants to see that. If so leave a review, if not...thanks for reading._**


End file.
